Cell phones tend to bring us more inside of our lives whereas movies offer a chance to escape, so there are two competing forces.

I have a choice - I can either watch all the dailies, or I can follow the social media. I can't do both.

I always think if it's a good story, the audience can't wait to run out of the theater and go tweet somebody with the gist of a story, in a nutshell, almost, because it was that interesting.

I don't make unconventional stories; I don't make non-linear stories. I like linear storytelling a lot.

I think that is the secret of great acting. You have to bring your imagination to the party. You've got to have a great imagination.

There's no other way to learn about it, except through documentaries. I encourage documentarians to continue telling stories about World War II. I think documentaries are the greatest way to educate an entire generation that doesn't often look back to learn anything about the history that provided a safe haven for so many of us today. Documentaries are the first line of education, and the second line of education is dramatization, such as The Pacific.

I wouldn't have filmed The Color Purple if the book had been a big fat novel. The reason I read it is because it is thin.