I feel like I learned very early on that your heroes are only as powerful as your villains. And I'm attracted to intelligent villains.

In Finland, getting a university degree is the first thing that you expect your kids to do.

It proved to be pretty impossible to get funds for a feature film in Finland. It's still small, but the film industry was miniscule at that point in the early '80s.

I did some film reviews for small papers in Finland and things like that to be able to keep living here.

I loved movies and went to see every movie I could in Finland.

Eventually, in '84, we made a film for a little over a million dollars - with American actors that was shot in English - that was shown in Finland A little action film called Born American.

You just never give up, no matter how hard the challenges are, and observe this world with a healthy dose of criticism and don't just follow the herd like somebody else might do.

I went out to some advertising agencies and asked if I could do anything.

I loved cutting together simple commercials about margarine or soft drinks - all kinds of silly products - but I tried to make the commercials different.

I became a real Shell Motor Oil expert, and I did this 25-minute film. It turned out really well and, as a result, they offered me more work and lots of commercials to direct.

I was making films when I was about 12 years old - Super-8 films.

How was she supposed to be in the same room with the man that made her want to simultaneously kiss him and kill him?

Beauty draws us with a single hair.

As the pressure of population increasingly regiments us and crowds us closer together, an association with the wild, winged freedom of the birds will fill an ever growing need in our lives.

The people want wholesome dread. They want to fear something. They want someone to frighten them and make them shudderingly submissive.

God uses us to impact others.

Hold us accountable. There's no accountability in Washington. Drain the swamp.

The worst situations in the world always start with the words, 'trust me.'

In my latter years I've decided that there's too much to keep track of when you go into the lying game. That becomes stressful and it's not for me anymore.

How can there be inaccuracy in comedy?

The trouble with telling a good story is that it invariably reminds the other fellow of a dull one.