Films can't change the society they can simply open the space for the discussion which can lead to social change and can start new forms of social activism.

The whole tradition of cinema is dominated, really, by films about good guys versus bad guys, good versus evil. But we have very few films about the nature of evil itself.

The killers have built the society. The whole Indonesia is their platform. They run the country. They run the country.

I need to trust myself and go where my instincts tell me, and to be as wild and free as possible in my creative decisions.

Each and every perpetrator was boastful, usually they would invite me to the places where they killed and I would of course accept those invitations because I could document what happened that way.

I see myself as an explorer more than a storyteller.

After the Dutch left Indonesia, after the Indonesians got loose in 1945, the freemen were not as widely used, but then they went through a real Renaissance where military dictatorship took over.

I always have said, you know it's not for me to forgive or to condemn, I'm a filmmaker.

There's a tradition of reenactment in documentary which is about sort of illustrating what the past might have been like.

A podium is something you walk up to, you say what you want to say and when you're finished, you leave.

Performance is always oriented towards a spectator, towards an imagined audience and I was thinking who is their imagined audience?

Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.

Out of the seven billion people sharing the planet with her, not one of them knew what was going through her head. Not one of them knew she was lost. Not one of them asked.

Sometimes transitional periods in life leave you feeling like a great big jumble of loose, split ends.

Americans have a tendency to believe that when there's a problem there must be a solution.

This is still a young man's game, so we have to stay young. Music allows you to do that, especially rock'n'roll.

Constant contact is what people require these days. Its tough on artists.

What we have is a more sophisticated form of imperialism, which is economic. But lurking in the background, always ready to go, is an armed force.

Everyone at some point in their lives feels excluded and misunderstood.

Tell us your phobias and we will tell you what you are afraid of

An empty canvas is a living wonder - far lovelier than certain pictures.