This is a time when we need to smile more and Hollywood movies are supposed to do that for people in difficult times.

If the movie does well, or it doesn't do so well, some movies get great reviews, some movies don't... that's just part of what I do for a living. I just move through all that; that doesn't ever stop me.

I missed my dad a lot growing up, even though we were together as a family. My dad was really a workaholic. And he was always working.

Whatever affect any of my films have on audiences, I just kind of stop at the door. I make them and I just don't go outside after they're over.

I've just always had a personal fascination with the myth of Abraham Lincoln. And once you start to read about him and the Civil War and everything leading up to the Civil War, you start to understand that the myth is created when we think we understand a character and we reduce him to a kind of cultural national stereotype.

My dad's been responsible for a lot of my issues.

There's nothing self-serving about what motivated me to bring 'Schindler's List' to the screen.