Like all art forms, film is a media as powerful as weapons of mass destruction; the only difference is that war destroys and film inspires.

The thing with Ryan, you can look at him for hours. Very few actors have that. It's a gift.

In the end, self-indulgence is very much about your ego and your vanity and your own id. The more you can indulge in it, the more pleasurable it becomes. And then when it feeds out, it's able to penetrate the mind and create a reaction.

Where war destroys, art inspires. And in order to inspire, you need to penetrate the brain. In order to penetrate the brain, you need something to react to. To have something to react to, you need to get your emotions up and running. To get your emotions up and running, you need to have something that ... whatever direction you go in, it has to be a movement between you and the experience.

The character requires so many elements. The only one who could fulfill that was this one person: Elle Fanning.

When you make something that everyone likes, it's very easy to say, "Well, I'll just repeat that." Because that was easy. I have a formula. But creatively, it's not very interesting.

I don't drive because I failed eight times and never got my license.