Show business is one of those things that people can use to get themselves out of the lower rung of society.

I make films about working class people.

Ray Charles, in his own way, it's like at the beginning, Ray Charles changed American music, not once but twice.

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.' .

Show business is one of those things that people can use to get themselves out of the lower rung of society.

I love actors and I understand what has to happen within a scene. Any scene is an acting scene and actors never act alone, so there has to be an interchange. If it's a dialog scene, if it's a love scene, it doesn't matter because you need to establish a situation.

I really believe you can predict when someone has a great attitude, a real well of talent.