I try to stay under the radar.

You can take a handful of dollars, a good story, and people with passion and make a movie that will stand up against any $70 million movie.

I have a problem with the blatant celebrity exhibitionism that happens in this business and being sold purely as a brand.

When you look at some of the most respected actors there are and the crap that they're in... it didn't used to be that way.

I think The Exorcist is the best American horror movie ever made. Friedkin was at the top of his game.

I really tried to make movies I wanted to see. I thought that if I was good enough, somebody would always need me.

Mostly I do films that mainstream Hollywood wouldn't touch.

I have all this time between projects, and I'm not so sure that's a healthy thing. It's scary, because at 36 I'm woefully unqualified for anything else.

You know how many movies it took Tom Cruise before he was making 5, 6 million dollars? It probably took a billion dollars in box office.

I don't like people who use the press to advance themselves in a way that they haven't earned as an actor, performer or director.

Everybody acts like they're in a movie in most movies. That's why they stink.

The Glory Is Always Hidden Between The Lines Of the Story

Reality is frequently inaccurate.

I basically became a cheerleader because I had a very strict mom. That was my way of being a bad girl.

People choose the paths that grant them the greatest rewards for the least amount of effort.

When the music arrives in my mind, it gives me the direction and the form at the same time. It's integrated into the music itself.

I think the press, which arguably was cowed by the (Bush) administration in the run-up to the war with Iraq, was certainly not cowed in covering the aftermath of Katrina.

Unless all the discoveries that you make have the welfare of the poor as the end in view, all your workshops will be really no better than Satan's workshops.

The Christian theory of the sacredness of the Bible has been at the cost of the world's civilization.

That's your solution? Have a cookie?' Astrid asked. 'No, my solution is to run down to the beach and hide out until this is all over,' Sam said. 'But a cookie never hurts.

Being a professional philosopher is, I would say, feeling natural to think about small and great problems. It is the only pleasure.