Film is a collective experience, as you know.

Reading a novel of a private experience, very, very different, the nature of it is very different.

You know, essentially when you do a play you're reinterpreting a work of art that already exists. That's not what happens with a movie.

Most human beings who are accustomed to attempting to see the world from various points of view tend to be more liberal than conservative. I have one life. I am a certain age. I'm married to one person. I have a certain number of children. I won't have another life other than that, but I do have many lives through the films. It's a way for me to understand what it's like to be a murderer, to confess, to be a beaten wife, to be a minority, to be a victor, to get the girl, to lose the girl. I can do all of that through the practice of an art form.

My films ought to be judged on whether they're entertaining or good as films, but not on the political view necessarily. I'm trying to be morally responsible and no more. I don't have an agenda I'm trying to push.

I mean, the truth of the matter is, I like the failures as much as I like the successes, it's only the world that doesn't like the failures.

The dance that happens, between actor and director, is a very delicate thing...it's why people tend to work together on many films over and over.