Watching a Kubrick film is like gazing up at a mountaintop. You look up and wonder, how could anyone have climbed that high?

I tried for about two semesters in a preparatory seminary. But I was about 15 and didn't fully understand what a vocation means.

I look for a thematic idea running through my movies and I see that it's the outsider struggling for recognition. I realize that all my life I've been an outsider, and above all, being lonely but never realizing it.

What the Dalai Lama had to resolve was whether to stay in Tibet or leave. He wanted to stay, but staying would have meant the total destruction of Tibet, because he would have died and that would have ripped the heart out of his people.

Every scene is a lesson. Every shot is a school. Let the learning continue.

I go through periods, usually when I'm editing and shooting, of seeing only old films.

I happen to like vampires more than zombies.