There is a narrative to every life, and I believe in the classic mode of storytelling that goes back to Homer and carries through to today.

[Nixon] reduced the meaning of his life to nothing but power. In the film, we gave this sad figure consciousness of what he was. We weren't right to do that - I don't think he did have that consciousness. But we did it for movie reasons - to create empathy.

I think our life is a series of adventures.

People are still living in the moment, and they feel the passion of now.

In any film there's always a historical implication.

After World War II the Republicans - the Wall Street crowd - were very worried about a depression coming back. They hated Franklin Roosevelt in that crowd, my father among them. And there was a great fear in '46 that we'd fall back into the pits. And they always wanted to break up the Roosevelt legislation.

One of the joys of going to the movies was that it was trashy, and we should never lose that.