I've had the pleasure to work with a lot of very great actors. And they're too different to say who's the best.

I'm a filmmaker, not a scientist.

When it comes to action, I'd say Mel Gibson and Will [Smith] were great.

Nobody makes movies bad on purpose.

Everybody knows that the industrialized nations are the worst offenders.

Dean [Devlin, Emmerich's partner on "Independence Day"] and I always said that we'd only do it when we had a really good story that excites us both, and we have the story written. And we've had it for a year and a half, two years. So we've been ready.

I'm finished with destroying for a while. It's not like I'm running around saying, 'What else can I destroy?'