I also know what looks good before the camera, how to move the camera, and how to get a story on the screen.

Music has always been an important thing to me in my life and understand I've worked in the music business.

Look at Walter Huston in The Devil and Daniel Webster: It's an incredible performance.

Russell Crowe is very difficult, but it's worth it. He's the real thing. I can tell you this. Russell Crowe was just as difficult before he was an international star as he was afterwards.

When Ray Charles is concentrating he's like a piece of granite, nothing twitches, nothing, ... He sat for 25 minutes solid like that, like a stone, and I thought, 'Oh my God, if he doesn't like it I'm dead.' ... And then finally, after 25 minutes he started to talk back to the screen. I heard him say 'That's right. That's the truth.' .

The score is always the wonderful icing. The score tells you the emotional content of the film. What the characters don't say, the music can say.

The director's job should give you a sense of music without drawing attention to itself.