I try to do what I call the three E's - educate, entertain, and enlighten. If you don't entertain, no one will show up. But you also have to educate, because people want to discover specific things about a world unlike their own - whether it's how hard it is to go to the moon or how scary it is to be on Omaha Beach.

I know how the Academy Awards works: It's a card game, and I'm in the toss-up category.

I have faith that a script is going to hit me like a ton of bricks, and when that happens, it's undeniable that I should choose the role.

Everybody has something that chews them up and, for me, that thing was always loneliness. The cinema has the power to make you not feel lonely, even when you are.

My job has always been to hold a mirror up to nature.

If I was to direct Ron Howard, I guarantee you, I would put him through a living hell every day. I would demand so much of him. We wouldn't quit until he leaves the set crying. Weeping! Spent!

Being politically correct means always having to say you're sorry. Believe me, the power and pleasure and the emotion of this moment is a constant speed of light.