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

I've always been interested in how we survive and how resourceful we are as Americans.

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

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 had no choice. It was just something that happened. I was always looking for ways to act out, and I got a camera and it acted out for me.

The only movie that I would ever even consider retrofitting is the first ‘Jurassic Park,’ which I think would look pretty spectacular in 3D. That’s the only one of my films that I would consider doing in 3D.

Most of my presumptions about a production are usually wrong.