The problem with anger is that it's so consuming. You've got to take it easy on yourself at a certain point.

The first element that I connected with was the emotion. Sorry, that's how it goes.

When I was growing up, I don't remember being told that America was created so that everyone could get rich. I remember being told it was about opportunity and the pursuit of happiness. Not happiness itself, but the pursuit.

Eradicating a religion of kindness is, I think, a terrible thing for the Chinese to attempt.

My working-class Italian-American parents didn't go to school, there were no books in the house.

My films really have to be a part of a whole body of work that says something to me.

Orson Welles was a force of nature, who just came in and wiped the slate clean. And Citizen Kane is the greatest risk-taking of all time in film. I don’t think anything had even seen anything quite like it. The photography was also unlike anything we’d seen. The odd coldness of the filmmaker towards the character reflects his own egomania and power, and yet a powerful empathy for all of them--it’s very interesting. It still holds up, and it’s still shocking. It takes storytelling and throws it up in the air.