People have asked me throughout the years which directors have influenced me. I don't know their names, because I was mostly influenced when I'd see a film and think, "Man, I want to be sure to never do anything like that." So I never learned their names. It wasn't a matter of copying or emulating somebody I admired. It was getting rid of a lot of stuff.

We make too much of the good and too much of the bad.

If George W. Bush is elected president, I'm leaving for France.

If you have a child who is seven feet tall, you don't cut off his head or his legs. You buy him a bigger bed and hope he plays basketball.

All of my films deal with the same thing: striving, socially and culturally, to stay alive.

Filmmaking is a chance to live many lifetimes.

Most of my films I call arena films. I deal with a confined area -- an arena -- and I try to cover every aspect of it.