If people lose their land, they have nothing. You lose your land - you lose your culture, you lose self.

[on editing of the films] There is always a question of time, and the director. I've worked with a lot of directors who don't mind my involvement. They appreciated it.

There are some problems on this planet that seem to be intractable.

A lot of making a movie is the comfort level of the people. It's just feeling open. We need to get along. We have to know something about each other.

When you work as an actor, you've got to feel safe even in what appears to be the simplest things.

I've always maintained that all characters and all personalities are in all of us. The whole thing is available. You're not this or that, no one is.

It's not enough to say that the Olympics is an athletic contest outside of politics, because it's not. The Chinese clearly are using the Olympics to recreate how they are viewed in the world and how they view themselves.