I always wanted to make a film that had this sort of Chinese-box effect, in which you keep opening it up and opening it up, and finally at the end you're at the beginning.

There's no such thing as simple. Simple is hard.

You don't make up for your sins in church. You do it in the streets. You do it at home. The rest is bullshit and you know it.

Every scene is a lesson. Every shot is a school. Let the learning continue.

As a child I had terrible asthma.

More than ninety percent of directing a picture is the right casting

Now more than ever we need to talk to each other, to listen to each other and understand how we see the world, and cinema is the best medium for doing this.

I love movies - it's my whole life, and that's it.

Cinema is a matter of what's in the frame and what's out.

Always stay open to surprise.

I’m not interested in a realistic look, not at all, not ever. Every film should look the way I feel.

The moment you put a deadline on your dream, it becomes a goal.

You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.

What did it avail to pray when he knew his soul lusted after its own destruction?

The consensus is a very dangerous thing to get complacent about.

To gain a reputation for virtue, grieve over those you injure.

We consciously decide whether to consider people; we fall in love despite ourselves; we entirely fail to fall in love with people who fall in love with us. It is a mightily complicated business.

I don't own any of my own paintings because a Picasso original costs several thousand dollars and that's a luxury I cannot afford.

We serve a God that does His greatest works when it becomes impossible for us.

The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire.

Getting along with one and other isn't meant to be difficult.