I would like to see a fierce Fantasia mixed with Blade Runner, Lord of the Rings, and Star Wars all in one. That's the kind of movies I want to make.

I just loved storytelling. That's what I thought I would end up doing. I thought I would probably go to school and end up writing for a magazine or something.

Going to car racing school was phenomenal.

The way I survived growing up in Jersey City was by being funny. It wasn't by being tough. Nobody thought of me as a tough kid, except for the kids I beat up.

Berlin is liberation. Architecture, man!

I'm like, "Well, damn, that means that I have to carry a flag." I don't have the freedom to just do anything, because I have the political weight of having this last name and my heritage. It's not like I've transcended, Will Smith-style. It takes a lot to pull that off, to cross over, and transcend.

There's only a handful of directors who really understand what I call the alchemical balance between a man and a woman, in a woman's body, which most people consider the strong woman character.