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.

Obviously its a good feeling to know that something you've done has lasted.

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.

OK, I know this is going to disgust you, Michael, but a lot of people are in this business to make money.

Making a film is 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.

I make films, and I hope that people come to see them. If they don't, I pay a big price. But I can't make decisions where I would change my own standards or my own taste in order to court the public in some way.