I'm not trying to push my political agenda on anybody. I'll do that like any other citizen by giving money to a party or candidate I believe in. I don't mind going out and endorsing somebody I believe in. But when we're talking about my films, I don't think my politics should have anything to do with it.

Burt Lancaster was largely responsible for me becoming a director.

I didn't grow up thinking of movies as film, or art, but as movies, something to do on a Saturday afternoon.

We talked about Tootsie, the idea in Tootsie is that a man becomes a better man for having been a woman.

[Stanley] Kubrick was a fascinating, larger than life guy who had been a friend for many years prior to our working together on that film. I found the best part of working with him to be the long conversations we had between set-ups.

Making films is much more difficult than people imagine, and so the experience of actually directing them is not one I've ever relished.

People aren't interested in paying $10 or $12 to go to the movies and to be lectured to politically. I'm not either. So I don't try to make those kinds of films.