I think more and more scientists are becoming convinced that it's very likely that life forms of some kind exist all around the universe not so far from us.

I'm not a caterer. I just have to stay with my creative convictions. At some point, you have to just get past the special-interest groups and do what you're there to do, which is make a movie.

One of the great things about being a director as a life choice is that it can never be mastered. Every story is its own kind of expedition, with its own set of challenges.

I think the most important thing really was that you could take very personal ideas and present them to an audience in entertaining ways.

3-D is a truly exciting possibility.

When Apollo 13 appeared as an opportunity and I began to tackle that in as authentic a way as I possibly could, I really became enthralled by the philosophical side of space travel, and why we need to explore - what it means to us here on Earth - all of those things. I became a huge proponent.

Humor is unavoidable. It might not feel funny in the moment, but more often than not there's a light at the end of the tunnel.