The function of camera movement is to assist the storytelling. That's all it is. It cannot be there just to demonstrate itself.

There's a sadness to the human condition that I think music is good for. It gives a counterpoint to the visual beauty, and adds depth to pictures that they wouldn't have if the music wasn't there.

I had no plans to be a director.

Films take up so much time, and with theatre, you do have to plan a period of time that you can be free.

There's nothing quite like the idea of failing spectacularly to excite a film maker

Obviously, I try to make the films work for an audience. That's the main point of making a film, and in retrospect, one can see that certain films, let's say Leaving Las Vegas, demonstrated its own success.

In discussing the process with the actors, I made it clear to them that they could improvise but that the sum total of their improvisation needed to impart certain plot points, and schematic material.