The key is, if youre not monkeying around with the script, then everything usually goes pretty well.

Ego is something that everybody, creative especially, has to grapple with. You need enough ego to keep going but not so much ego that you're deaf or blind, that you're making a mistake and can't fix the course.

We [people] are a species that's wired to tell stories. We need stories. It's how we make sense of things. It's how we learn.

I'm probably more character-driven than plot-driven. It's rare for me to attach myself to an idea for a story.

That's why my attitude, even on my larger-scale movies, is to make them cheap. The less these things cost, the better for everybody.

I feel I need to really think about whether there's a way to use what skill I have to address things that outrage me, like the 13 year old girl getting stoned to death. Because I don't think making a movie is going to help that, or change that.

I'm not a snob. If I feel like there's a star that's the best person for that role, then that's who I get.