I'm pretty focused on what I do. I think directing is a very specific talent, and I'm not real big on putting puzzles together, which is basically what a film is.

There are a lot of little kids, amazingly enough, that see me. Their parents go, 'That's Mace Windu.' They go, 'Oh, right. Well, you know, Jedi can fall from really high places. So you're probably not dead, but you only have one hand now.' That's good. There's hope.'

I get paid all day, every day, which is almost too much for a sensitive artist.

There are tons of stories out there. I read a lot of scripts on a weekly basis. I'm looking for stories to tell and stories that I hope will be interesting to an audience.

Sometimes one of my ways of choosing movies that I want to do is if it's the kind of movie I would have gone to see when I was a kid, and this is a movie I actually did go see, as a kid. And I think it will be exciting for audiences to see now.

I actually think it's going to be the intriguing plot [ in Black Snake Moan] point that brings people into the film.

When I'd read the script [The Man], [ Eugene Levy] that's who I'd seen in my mind. When I ran into him, I said to him, 'I read the script. You'd be great.' He had no idea what I was talking about. Then, we saw each other again in London. He'd read it and was enthused about it.