I didn't believe that I'd ever be lucky enough to be able to make a living as an actor.

I'm not a very good predictor in any area of art, particularly my own. I don't know how to evaluate that.

When you work without a script, you are in a sense working in a much more improvisational way than when you are prepared totally.

By that I mean, I think that it is true that politics and political heroes have to satisfy our need to be greater than mortal in some way, and that's led them into creating illusions, sound bites, focus groups that tell you what to do.

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.

Editing feels almost like sculpting or a form of continuing the writing process.

Well, there's no question that a good script is an absolutely essential, maybe the essential thing for a movie.