I look at a picture like Scarecrow and think, 'Jesus, how could they have let us make that?' I mean, if you used technology that old nowadays, it would look like old Hollywood.

There is something missing in a lot of digital filmmaking, something I call "poetic reality." That's something you see played out in film noir, where the technique establishes the mood.

I love to make movies about young people - young scientists that are inventing things and all the writing they did was very funny and very true.

As an actor, Sean [Penn] is brilliant. And he's really an excellent director, as well. We got along really well.

I had never met Woody Allen before Melinda and Melinda. My agent knew the producer of the movie and he suggested that we would work well together and then we did. We had a great time on that film.

I think that film is still an artform and it doesn't really matter if you're using a digital camera or a film camera.

I think that the audience should not be able to tell if it is real or not real - it should be an enhanced version of reality, or an artistic view of reality, that captures not only what is physically there, but what is not visible - the mood.