If a movie isn't a hit right out of the gate, they drop it. Which means that the whole mainstream Hollywood product has been skewed toward violence and vulgar teen comedy.

Low self esteem involves imagining the worst that other people can think about you.

You can't just tell actors, especially young ones, to 'act happy' and expect them to do it. They must in some essential way be happy.

When I go to the movies, one of my strongest desires is to be shown something new. I want to go to new places, meet new people, have new experiences. When I see Hollywood formulas mindlessly repeated, a little something dies inside of me: I have lost two hours to boors who insist on telling me stories I have heard before.

Sometimes, it's all about the casting.

I think we have to get beyond the idea that we have to categorize people. We can now have action movies with two stars where one might be African American and one might be Asian American. One of them doesn't have to be white, and the other one doesn't have to be the ethnic sidekick. We're way over that. And I think it's happening in society, too.

'Grand Illusion' and 'Rules of the Game' are routinely included on lists of the greatest films, and deserve to be.