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

The creative process is a very collaborative process. I know it might seem that way because so much ink is spilled and the media is obsessed with business and numbers and studios... but filmmakers don't think of it that way. We just go off and we tell our stories. It's the same torture that we adore, it's the same torture that our forefathers endured making movies in the golden era of Hollywood. So, from my perspective it's no different, I'm sure, from the men and women who I admire so much who made the earliest movies.

I made 'Empire of the Sun' in Shanghai in the 1980s and want to come back one day to make a movie in China.

I think producers are more interested in backing concepts than directors and writers. I don't think that's the right way of making a decision about whether you're going to back a film or not.

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.

A lot of kids only know 'E.T.' from the digitally-enhanced version.

When my children were born, I made the choice I wanted them to be raised as Jews and to have a Jewish education.