Sometimes the critics will like a film, and the public doesn't come. Sometimes the critics won't like the film, and the public will come. It's completely spontaneous. It's a hazard.

I'm a teleological, existential agnostic.

Why are our days numbered and not, say, lettered?

Culturally speaking, I was raised in a Jewish household. In addition to the religious side of it, I was taught respect for books and learning and the higher professions like medicine and law and teaching.

Showing up is 80 percent of life.

It's all through the actors; I cannot write in that idiom

I'd call him a sadistic, hippophilic necrophile, but that would be beating a dead horse.