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.

There are moments when television systems are young and haven't formed properly, and there's room for lots of original stuff. Then things become more and more top-heavy with executives who are trying to guarantee the success of things.

My problem is I'm like a junkie. I want a good movie fix, and I never get that fix.

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

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.

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

I don't think you ever learn just one thing. At some point you start unlearning things. I have been working hard to unlearn everything I know.