More often than not, the experience of shooting the movie has been disappointing and the end product has been a mere shadow of what I hoped it would be. But immersing myself in the story - that's what I like best of all.

I wrote a letter to the magazine [Time magazine] pointing out that [Richard] Corliss's comparison of Christopher Lee's Saruman to Osama Bin Laden, and the vastly outnumbered defenders of Helm's Deep united against the Orcs to the "Coalition of the Willing" fighting the good fight against Muslim hordes, displayed the simplistic, xenophobic, and arrogant worldview that makes the government of the United States feared and mistrusted around the world. The editors claimed they had no space to print my brief letter, which I felt was dishonest and cowardly.

I'm sort of contrary and stubborn sometimes. When everybody says, 'You have to read this book! You have to read this book!' I'm like 'Oh, I'll get around to it.'

Bernie Sanders has inspired millions of people in this country.

I try to research or make up for myself what happened in any character's life. From when he was born until the first page of the script. I fill in the blanks.

Be kind. It's worthwhile to make an effort to learn about other people and figure out what you might have in common with them.

The Road was a movie that has a good reputation, even though it wasn't released very well, but that's a movie I'm very proud of.