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

I love having made a film and watching it when it affects audiences in a positive way. It was always fun for me to hide in the back of a theater and watch Tootsie with an audience and hear them laugh. And it's gratifying 20 years later to imagine that they still can find it amusing.

No, I never went to college. Always regretted it, always envied people who did.

Every single art form is involved in film, in a way.

I don't consider myself a teacher of moral and political positions. I don't want to be that. I can't help but have a point of view when I make a film, but my first job is to entertain you.

And I taught acting for years, and without knowing it that was the real thing that started bending me toward directing.

I think it's a terrible shame that politics has become show business.