I'm doing a much smaller movie. It's set in Germany and it's a totally different subject matter. I'm trying to break it up.

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

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

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.

There's not really much destruction in New York besides the weather and it's a natural force so it's not like any destruction. But LA gets leveled (laughs). That's my comment to Hollywood.

I'm a filmmaker, not a scientist.

["2012"] it was really more about the subject matter, and to do a modern retelling of Noah's Ark, a flood story.