I've begun to believe more and more that movies are all about transitions, that the key to making good movies is to pay attention to the transition between scenes. And not just how you get from one scene to the next, but where you leave a scene and where you come into a new scene. Those are some of the most important decisions that you make. It can be the difference between a movie that works and a movie that doesn't.

Your take on things is what is either going to make you somebody people talk about or no.

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.

A movie is something you see, cinema is something that’s made.

I had more fun making Traffic than either of the Ocean's films.

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.

I grew up mostly in the South, and there's definitely something about the South that's different from the North. When people ask me where I'm from, I say Louisiana. I spent more years there than anywhere else.