Documentaries are the first line of education, and the second line of education is dramatization, such as 'The Pacific'.

I think every film I make that puts characters in jeopardy is me purging my own fears, sadly only to re-engage with them shortly after the release of the picture. I'll never make enough films to purge them all.

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

With all the movies I've made about history, it's not really fun because you're trying to get it right. You've got history telling how it was, and then my imagination is telling me how I wish it had been, but I can't go there, so I have to censor myself. I'm very good about stopping myself from creating history that never occurred, but it's frustrating.

I would lose myself too much if I thought of myself as the audience.

I am an American Jew and aware of the sensitivities involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

I love my kids as individuals, not as a herd, and I do have a herd of children: I have seven kids.