I respect the audience's intelligence a lot, and that's why I don't try to go for the lowest common denominator.

'25th Hour,' like a lot of my films, takes place in New York City. I've been very fortunate to make films in the city that I live. I mean, it's great going home at night instead of being on location.

You have to do the research. If you don't know about something, then you ask the right people who do.

He revolutionized music videos. Before Michael Jackson, MTV refused to play African-American artists.

There's an unwritten law that you cannot have a Jewish character in a film who isn't 100 percent perfect, or you're labeled anti-Semitic.

People of color have a constant frustration of not being represented, or being misrepresented, and these images go around the world.

I want to tell stories, I don't really try to get boxed in by a specific genre.