Whenever you experiment with something, it's very easy to take the emotion out of it. And going back and forth between wanting to be respected artistically and wanting to move people is its own challenge.

Truth and facts have to trump partisanship. There has to be something that's true regardless of what your angle is on it.

I look at other filmmakers and see skills in them that I wish I had but I know that I don't. I feel like I have to work really hard to keep myself afloat, doing what I do. But I find it pleasurable.

"A meteor hits planet Earth" - that's a story idea but that doesn't give me any indication of what the character is.

I want to form a political party that's based entirely on what music people listen to. To me, it's a much better barometer of what they think and feel than their political stance.

[I watch] Fincher, Spielberg, Cameron, McTiernan. Just people who are good at staging action. I like to know where I am. I don't like the kind of cutting where you don't know where you are.

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