Adversity has a way of introducing a man to himself.

My family's lineage is five generations of artists who never made it.

I would like to be George Clooney - diplomatic. I just don't have the wherewithal yet or the inner serenity.

There's no room for being a visionary in the studio system. It literally cannot exist. You give Terrence Malick a movie like Transformers, and he's f***ed. There's no way for him to exist in that world... Lars Von Trier's dangerous. He scares me. And I'm only going to work now when I'm terrified.

All of the things that have happened in my life have been self-propelled. I can't blame anybody else or point a finger at anybody.

Sometimes I feel I'm living a meaningless life, and I get frightened.

It's good filmmaking when you don't have to say anything and you can still tell the story.