Casting is everything. I put a huge amount of work into casting, and consistently across my career, I am most proud of my bold choices I made in casting.

That's why 'The Bourne Identity' has that sort of shaky style, because for the most part, Matt Damon and I were sneaking around Paris and shooting where we didn't have permits.

At the end of the day, it's still a show about guys who ride extremely fast motorcycles for a living.

I can't impress people with the pedigree of obscure French filmmakers that got me into film. It was Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg. I really thought I wanted to make dumb action movies.

In movies, you can basically buy the audience into the theater. If you spend enough money on visual effects, even if you are lacking in story and character, you might still pull it off.

To be a lone filmmaker thousands of miles from home with nobody believing in me, that seems romantic.

I make movies for me and posterity. I'm more scared of history than I am of the studio.

If you do something that's really original, you discover why everybody else does it the other way, usually. There's a reason cliches exist, 'cause they work.

It's no secret that my process is a little bit loose and can be a little bit infuriating to a studio if they don't know what they're signing up for.

When I was shooting 'The Bourne Identity,' I had a mantra: 'How come you never see James Bond pay a phone bill?' It sounds trite, but it became the foundation of that franchise.

I probably shouldn't treat interviews as therapy sessions, but I don't keep a diary, so these end up being my way of keeping track of where I'm at and letting it all out.

Any faith that admires truth, that strives to know God, must be brave enough to accommodate the universe.

Children will still die unjustly even in a perfect society. Even by his greatest effort, man can only propose to diminish, arithmetically, the sufferings of the world.

Suffice it to say, I'm not poor.

I think America causes cancer, longevity is less important than fun, and young people should be discouraged from voting.

That's why workers in France like horsemeat, because it's like a male thing that makes you strong. Cow meat is a much more female meat.

One of the things I love, and I'm a voracious reader as well as a writer, is books that surprise me, that are not predictable.

It came to me late, as an adult, the desire to draw and participate in the world of lines.

Security used to be an inconvenience sometimes, but now it's a necessity all the time.

At 21, I discovered repression and injustice. The army would shoot students with real bullets.

Some wedges are great but you can look like your feet are encased in cement.