Everything about filmmaking tries to distract you from that first fine rapturous vision you have of the film.

I have as much artistic freedom in my television work as I have in my films.

I have a bad reputation for being temperamental.

When you meet me, I can be charming and intelligent and reasonable.

I'm not an easygoing guy as a director.

But when I direct I become possessed, a possession I've never quite understood.

When you're actually making the film, you're constantly battling to maintain its integrity.

My plan was to stay in Canada to make films.

I wanted to make Canadian films, and I ended up making American films.

Watch for the thing that will show itself to you. Because that thing, when you find it, will be your future.

Hardship is vanishing, but so is style, and the two are more closely connected than the present generation supposes.

Living in China has made me appreciate my own country, with its tiny, ethnically diverse population of unassuming donut-eaters.

Drugs may know how to numb a brain, but the past never forgets to resurface.

Struggle is the meaning of life; defeat or victory is in the hands of God. But struggle itself is man’s duty and should be his joy.

I tell the audience every night, "I hope you didn't pay more than face value on that ticket, because we ain't worth more than that, and you ain't gonna get any more than that."

I'm tired of defending my character. I am what I am. What you see is what you get.

It's so fun to be in love... or so I've heard, The meaning has no feeling even though I understand the word...

The only reason I am glad I am a woman is because I will not have to marry one.