Fantasy isn't just a jolly escape: It's an escape, but into something far more extreme than reality, or normality. It's where things are more beautiful and more wondrous and more terrifying. You move into a world of conflicting extremes.

Once the voices are in your head, it's either make a movie or kill a lot of people.

I'm trying to escape by forming my own kind of world. Basically, I'm trying to encourage others to do the same.

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

I like being a patron of things, I like patronizing things. And if it's not going to be people, I'll patronize a festival.

I'm overwhelmed by writers. Most people aren't impressed by writers, but if you can draw a cartoon or a picture, they think you're magic.

My strength, if it's anything, is that I can lure some big-name actors in. That's probably the strength of almost any director now. On your own, as a director, you've only got so much weight. James Cameron, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Michael Bay... that's about it. Everybody else depends on the star power that they can draw.