If I'm able to catch the screening, there's a point in the film where, like clockwork, a portion of the audience gets really emotional and begins to cry. And that's very difficult to make happen.

I think in some ways you learn more from the things you don't like than the things you do.

Acting is really scary, but it's also challenging, fun, hard work. There's always an element of improvisation with every actor, even when something is really scripted.

It sounds cliche, but success is your friends, your family, what you do, and if you're happy when you wake up.

When actors give their input, it can be very ego-driven, and directors are scared of that.

I think Van Sant is the most important American director we have. He takes the most risks. He's just pure to me.

I'm not really equipped to do anything else but making movies. In every other aspect of my life I'm a total failure.

I feel that film, as opposed to theatre, is about capturing that one, real moment.

I saw the main character played by Mads Mikkelsen, and he's amazing. Hannibal had that going for it.

I have fun making films. I love making films. It's the only thing I know how to do. And I do it well.

Right now is a very interesting time because of the digital cameras, and the fact that you can edit anywhere. It's a great time to be a filmmaker, is a great time to be starting off.

It seems to me that our lives are consumed by countless wasting years, but only a few shining moments. I missed mine. Yes is what I should have said. Of course I should have said yes.

A religious person without no job is a dead person. (Iigbagbo ti koni ise oku ni. - Yoruba proverb)

What if I said I wanted a friend?' The ship crouches among the fresh-cut stalks. 'Or a lover? That's how you make a person, yes? By affection and intimacy. By touches like knives in a salted bed.

You might be a redneck if you see a sign that says Say No To Crack and it reminds you to pull your jeans up.

To a sprinter, the hundred-yard dash is over in three seconds, not nine or ten.

Reality is what you believe it to be. It's what you put your thought and energy into, because your hands physically manifest thought. So your world becomes what you feel and what you think.

The war, as I felt it and a lot of my compatriots felt it, was a creative act.

Half the world's work is done by hopeless neurotics.

I've had bad luck with both my wives. The first one left me and the second one didn't.

In all honesty, I don't know what one song can change.