I like naturally occurring film grain, and what happens to film when it's under- and over-exposed.

Each time I make a movie, it's like a paid scholarship to a different university course.

As Martin Luther King said, "Passively to participate in an unjust system is to accept that system and to participate in its evil."

You can't really go back to where you came from. I don't think any of us can.

In a lot of ways, I envy someone like Omar Sharif who lived in a hotel for decades.

I suppose a good director is like a teacher. I think that someone like David Cronenberg was very much like a teacher, because there's an openness, but a certain set of rules of behavior, and a certain conduct expected. But there's an atmosphere that's relaxed and conducive to exploration, and that is created by someone like Cronenberg.

To find a good story, you’re generally going to find it in independent or lower budget movies... I wouldn’t mind doing a big budget movie if it had a great story.