Critics like to build you up, tear you down, and then, if you're lucky, build you up again.

I had a great education. From kindergarten to John Dewey High School in Coney Island, I am public-school educated.

There's a lot of Americans, black and white, who think that we've arrived where we need to be and nothing else needs to be done and affirmative action needs to be dismantled.

Making films has got to be one of the hardest endeavors known to humankind.

I don't think I'm a total pessimist, so I think you can find hope in all my films.

Most human beings will not stand in front of a stage and tell you about the bad things they did.

I don't like to use the word 'remake', I think reinterpretation is a better word. It's just a matter of respecting the source, and then trying to make your own film, and trying not to be inhibited by being so beholden to every single thing... We respect the source, but we make changes to it.