I've realized that the only thing I'm interested in is the performance. If the performance is right, then I'm happy. You offer up the dialogue and then the performance comes around.

The story [of Allied] stayed with me, like a stray dog outside the office, waiting.

I think that helps because there has been no formality of friendship, the politeness of friendship, so we can just work directly on the work that's ahead of us [with Tom Hardey].

If you've read something brilliant, it's good. It's good to look out the window and see what's going on in the world.

True stories are always good because they're so odd, and so unlikely.

In terms of how [Allied] looks, it's fantastic and much better than I had hoped because it's so lush and so beautifully executed.

It's always good to have a world that people don't know about - a world that hasn't yet been done. It's like treading on fresh snow. You're the first one there.

No screenplay is possible, unless you get some attachment from somebody who's going to get it made.

Sometimes you take something because it's an offer and it's big and it's good money and you have to absolutely respect that process, because it's not easier.

There's lots of different ways of writing stuff and lots of different mindsets to have, but I think when it's your own creation, it's more pleasurable because you have total control.

Sometimes if you're a director, you want to believe that you're great and capable at all aspects - the technical side, the lights, everything - but I'm not.

You can not love someone you do not appreciate and you can not appreciate what you do not see.

First and foremost I feel I am a child of God ....Today I think that everything matters, but like a nice game of relative importance and value, certainly not absolute like conversion.

If I could only get people to rub my belly for good lucky and then throw money in my fountain, it'd be a perfect world.

I look for mystery and try to decipher it while knowing it is an impossible task. I look for memory, where Mystery lies.

The people made the Constitution, and the people can unmake it. It is the creature of their own will, and lives only by their will.

I grew up wanting to be a musician, but my parents were sure I would starve to death. So, they put me in physics and chemistry. That eventually blew up, and I got into radio.

Look, at the end of the day people have to respect people's differences. I am different than some people would like me to be.

If goodness has causes, it is not goodness; if it has effects, a reward, it is not goodness either. So goodness is outside the chain of cause and effect.

I realized that this story [Shelter] is all about family, family loss, and how it influences you day to day life.

Conversation has a kind of charm about it, an insuating and insidious something that elicits secrets from us just like love or liquor.