I was getting frustrated with America. It's interesting how as simple a thing as, like, letting your hair grow longer changed in the world in those days.

What I want to do is make films that astonish people, that astound people, and I hope you want to do that too. It's easy to make money. It's easy to make films like everybody else. But to make films that explode like grenades in people's heads and leave shrapnel for the rest of their lives is a very important thing. That's what the great filmmakers did for me. I've got images from Fellini, from Bergman, from Kurowsawa, from Bunuel, all stuck in my brain.

Because I dislike being quoted I lie almost constantly when talking about my work.

All films are learning processes. I am still trying to work out how you make a movie. I didn't study at film school or any of those things. I didn't bother with film theory.

Invariably, what I'm trying to do is more ambitious than the budget, but we manage to do it somehow.

I thought, how do you confuse violent Russian mobsters? Well, by being silly!

Actually, I began to think that maybe there is a god, after all. Or maybe its a different one. The old one got fired.