I didn't have any set idea of what kind of filmmaker I wanted to be. I knew I wanted to tell stories that meant something to me, but I never said I was going to be the weird, avant-garde guy.

It's disappointing to see films become pure entertainment, so that it's not an art form.

Before Sunrise did very well internationally. It made as much in Italy and Korea as it did here.

I don't think all films should necessarily look like they do on digital video. I think it cheats the audience, at some point. If you try to make an epic and you shoot it digitally, that doesn't make much sense. I think there's a certain kind of film that could be a "digital film." But it shouldn't be interchangeable with other films. It should be something more than just a capture medium. It should be a different form altogether, something new.

I think you get in trouble if you make experimental big studio films.

If you establish rules and play by them, the audience will buy in.

There are so many great artists, I think, who kind of suffer from being icons, legends, acknowledged masters.