I don't think film schools are mentoring kids. I think they just send them through the curriculum, so now you know how to hold a camera, how to use a Dx3 menu. You can learn that in five minutes from somebody that doesn't even know anything. But what do you know if you haven't read anything - studied art and studied literature - what do you have to contribute?

The point is not to give people a break. The point is to tell all the truth you can bear about them and not despise them, not to be a kumbaya kind of guy.

I would not presume to say that I know anything about "The Truth," whatever that is.

I'm from the point of view there's something important to deliver to the world. You can be an entertainer; I suppose I shouldn't be down on the idea of going to see a film for the hell of it, but there's too much of that.

Film schools are not rigorous enough. They let things get by and kids get out there and they think they are saying something and doing something.

Much to my chagrin, I think that cinema has gone the wrong way in America because in many ways, I pioneered the use of video which eventually became digital video. Everyone can do it; it's Pop Art time: "Everything is art, why should you take it so seriously, after all it's kind of like a clambake." I don't buy that.

We're in an era where you learn about techniques, but you don't experience anything crucial in yourself about a piece of work from an artist that you love.