So much can be learned by any filmmaker by studying his work, in terms of blocking, staging, editing and sound.

It's hard for me to say you have to accept that the world is meaningless and the landscape is there before and after. That's not something we learn much in our culture growing up.

I like to give the actors the freedom, and they know they have the freedom, to change anything they want at any time.

We're living in a time period where if a kid is on a plastic scooter that's one inch off the ground, mom and dad think he should have a helmet on. I don't think they should have a helmet on. They should break their leg and have an imagination. Otherwise, we're going to have a nation of accountants.

I'm not going to read reviews like, "I have to do these things." Any good criticism makes you think about your own films and about cinema in general.

I believe in the utmost importance of one human being's actions toward another. This is actually what I believe in. How we handle one another, that's what makes us feel isolated, feel like outsiders sometimes. These questions are overwhelming. "What do you do in this world?" I believe in that more than anything.

The people who run the major banks have MBAs and wear suits. And when those people in suits come to the homes of people who don't have a high school diploma, don't even speak English, and offer them a home at zero percent down, that doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense.