It's still a mystery to me, but even though my mother was like an older sister to me, I kind of put her up on a pedestal.

The essence of what it is to be American is the deep moral urge to be free, to freely express yourself and have the right to do so, and to look at all people as equals.

The work that I'm proudest of is the work that I'm most afraid of.

Movies principally require the best of everybody, all at the same time, being the best they can be. Not just like five people being the best they've ever been, and 10 people not being the best they could be. It's like if everybody is either doing their greatest work, or the whole house of cards falls apart.

All I have to do is pose for a picture and I'm getting married to the person standing next to me.

Even if I'd had a really happy relationship with my father and there was no emotional hiatus for a decade and a half, I probably would still have made some of the same choices for movies that I've made.

I don't think any movie or any book or any work of art can solve the stalemate in the Middle East today. But it's certainly worth a try.