There's no need to be tragic or destroy yourself or jump off a cliff. That's no longer the paradigm I wish to follow, or that anyone should follow. It is not necessary to be tragic. It's bullshit that women can't have it all. Why not? Other people do.

I just don't think I'm an ideological filmmaker in any way. I don't know how anyone could see anything I've done and see that.

Movies are a commitment. They take years of your life and they have big consequences. That's one of the bad things about movies - you're stuck with the aftermath.

One thing I'm not is a moralistic filmmaker. I'm not trying to tell people what to do, and I'm not trying to lead.

In my early thirties I was working in television as a researcher. I was really stuck for a period of five years. I got to TV when I was thirty. I hated being a music writer, and kept wondering why I couldn't be doing the exciting things that my friends were doing in television.

Bettie Page was the first person to do bondage as fashion, because for her it really was all about dressing up.

It's interesting that gay men and young women have been the twin engines of the Bettie [Page] cult.