I had a checkered early career, for sure, with a lot of very unhappy experiences where pictures got taken away, re-cut, re-titled... all the nightmares one hears about.

What you care about [movie] is whether it's moving you, or whether you're caught up in it.

Hollywood, of course, is the city of illusion.

You can dress it up, but it comes down to the fact that a movie is only as good as its script.

Whereas to write, all you need is paper and an idea, so I felt that writing might be my stepping stone.

Self-awareness and self-esteem. Those aren't female issues, those are human issues.

Put simply, there are many people who want to make movies and very few opportunities for them to do it.

I grew up as a reader as well as a movie-lover, so many of the novelists I admired - and so many of the great filmmakers I loved - were self-taught.

Consequently, it's so gratifying to then make a picture that's successful and gives you leverage to have better circumstances than you've ever had, before the next time out.

Consequently, their school [film-school ] was the school of life, and it was very much reflected in their work.

You can imagine what it was like for me to actually be sitting in a room with matching typewriters, working under the tutelage of this guy I so admired, both as a filmmaker and as a man.

If you are humble enough to admit to your flaws then you are capable of correcting them.

Trust me, I'm a really nice guy.

If Everybody In The World Dropped Out Of School We Would Have A Much More Intelligent Society.

We seem to be a side that if we don't score we get beat.

A coxcomb is one whom simpletons believe to be a man of merit.

human honesty has its varieties; so does human ignorance.

When somebody comes up to you and shows you yellow underlining of something you wrote, that's such a high. It's a connection to others.

I found my way into the indie world a bit late in my career, but it was something that I was really passionate about doing.

Always telling the truth is no doubt better than always lying, although equally pathological.

If you loved once, and if you cared once, you never really stop. And if you build a true foundation, a true friendship, that never really goes away.