Art doesn't just happen by accident. It is about pulling out new tricks and trying new things.

As a writer, you have control of the words you put on the page. But once that manuscript leaves your hand, you give control to the reader. As a director, you are limited by everything: weather, budget, and egos.

No rock and roll ensemble, however inspired, can deliver the kind of musical variety obtainable with the resources of 110 instruments.

In fact, we've entered a world which is arguably much more dangerous than [being] eyeball to eyeball with the USSR.

So the Lincoln movie gets trashed because Connecticut voted for the amendment - not to mention how the people in Connecticut feel - but there's a lot of that. And I think it precedes from a fundamental misunderstanding of cinema. They are entertainment. And I'd like to say that entertainment isn't a synonym for disposable or mindless or stupid. Hamlet? Pretty entertaining from where I come from.

I'm mainly interested in people trying to figure s#!t out.

Art and commerce are not irreconciliable, they are inextricably intertwined.