I'm in five guilds; that's a lot of dues to pay. So I have to keep on working.

Although there was a screenplay, the actors never knew what questions I was going to ask them, and all of my character's voice-over narration and scenes were added after the fact.

Documentaries have always inspired me in narrative filmmaking.

New York means so much to people. If you're inclined to leave the nest, New York is where most people think they have to go, and it's been that way since the first skyscraper.

My hunger and desperation, being an actor, an out of work actor - my memory of that is as fresh as an open wound.

I'm being told it saves money to shoot in Toronto, because of tax benefits, the crews are cheaper, but what I save in the bottom line, I lose in a million other ways.

As a director, I've been able to combine with what I've learned as an actor and as a producer: it melds quite nicely into what I feel like I should have been doing all along.

I've always been schizophrenic; I've never been interested in limiting myself.

On every movie I’ve done as a director, I look at the producers and having done it, I don’t envy them, at all.

I met Steve McQueen once. Well, met isn't really the right word.

To see a comedy in an environment where you're surrounded by other people that are laughing is great. That's probably more satisfying than just watching it by yourself.

Eventually, however, the denial turned into emptiness and my childhood ended.

The first lesson of economics is scarcity: there is never enough of anything to fully satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.

Countries are not like financial markets. Social change cannot be executed as swiftly as credit-default swaps. You cannot sell short on social commitments and practical responsibilities.

Not only do the brave get killed, but the brave have a better chance of it.

I think it was so unfair that people attacked Freida Pinto for being an Indian, playing a Palestinian.

I'm still waiting for somebody to wake me up.

I just don't know how to stitch words in a predictable way sometimes. It's a weird instinct I've developed.

I am a person who goes out without a purse.

In the past, 'Avatar' would have won because Oscar voters loved to hand out awards to big productions, like 'Ben-Hur.' Today it's fashionable to give the Oscar to a small movie that nobody saw.

One hundred percent of the time, no plea bargain, no bail, you're going to the penitentiary - that will change the atmosphere in this culture of violence the president talks about.