I like to go back to Chinese film-making from time to time. I don't think I can make Chinese films back to back; it's such a big effort. I'd have to take a very long break.

We need storytelling. Otherwise life just goes on and on, like the number Pi.

I see a movie as a way of learning about the world, about myself, and learning about my relationship with people and art.

I think the American West really attracts me because it's romantic. The desert, the empty space, the drama.

My hometown was one of the major U.S. Air Force bases.

I think people are universal.

Sometimes, you have to get angry to get things done.

Every movie I make. That’s my hideout, the place I don’t quite understand, but feel most at home.

When there is a strong woman character in a story - that always grabs me

I think great romance needs great obstacles and textures.

Making movies is a way of understanding myself and the world.

Sometimes what we want lies behind a door our own actions have locked tight.

Those who complain most are most to be complained of.

I woke up many mornings not knowing what I'd done the night before. I'm amazed I'm not dead.

Instead, we were given a publication called the Weekly Reader, which was like a newspaper for four-foot illiterates.

I'm not doing my job if people are like, "What you do is fake." And literally people on the street are confused, generally, for the first time.

Dizzy used to tell me I'm playing too hard. He'd say to not give everything. Miles told me that too.

Young people in particular need real options to find a decent job and to lift their lives. I'm not sure the new Islamist governments will be the best to promote prosperity and growth.

Something that could bring you wealth and fame could also be your end, your undoing.

At some point in life, the world's beauty becomes enough.

There is a gravity which is not austere nor captious, which belongs not to melancholy nor dwells in contraction of heart: but arises from tenderness and hangs upon reflection.