I was afraid of small spaces and I was afraid of the tree outside my window, and I had all these phobias. I think many kids have those phobias, but I probably had more than most.

I've discovered I've got this preoccupation with ordinary people pursued by large forces.

The delicate balance of mentoring someone is not creating them in your own image, but giving them the opportunity to create themselves.

I get very, very anxious on the set. I have a thousand ideas and I don't censor myself. I wind up cutting some of them out in the editing room... I shoot [needless footage] and then don't use later on in the process.

I didn't read reviews earlier in my career, but I read them now as I'm older. I read them all.

From the day I started to think politically and to develop my own moral values, from my earliest youth, I have been an ardent defender of Israel.

I see some parallels between then [Lincoln's era] and now. Certainly the division of ideologies between two parties, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. In 1865, the Democrats were the Conservatives and the Republicans were the progressives, and today it's just the opposite.