The bones of the story of 'War Horse' is a love story. That's what makes it universal.

I was afraid of small spaces and I was afraid of the tree outside my window, and I had all these phobias. I think many kids have those phobias, but I probably had more than most.

After a scary movie about the world almost ending, we can walk into the sunlight and say, "Wow, everything's still here. I'm OK!" We like to tease ourselves. Human beings have a need to get close to the edge, and when filmmakers or writers can take them to the edge, it feels like a dream where you're falling, but you wake up just before you hit the ground.

Casting sometimes is fate and destiny more than skill and talent, from a director's point of view.

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

Twenty years from now, there will still be a square screen, maybe even larger, and people will be sitting in a large, dark space, and they won't know each other unless they bring friends along.

For the most part, everybody who fights in war fights to survive.