If you're sitting around thinking what other people think about your work, you'll just become paralysed.

I think I'm good at amplifying an actor's strengths, and minimizing their weaknesses. And they all have strengths and weaknesses.

When a film like Chris Nolan's Memento cannot get picked up, to me independent film is over. It's dead.

To me the director’s job is to leave it in better shape than you found it, literally.

We [people] are a species that's wired to tell stories. We need stories. It's how we make sense of things. It's how we learn.

I want to thank anyone who spends part of their day creating...anybody who spends part of their day sharing their experience with us-I think this world would be unlivable without art and I thank you.

You’re supposed to expand your mind to fit the art, you’re not supposed to chop the art down to fit your mind.

There are three major social issues that this country is struggling with: education, poverty, and drugs. Two of them we talk about, and one of them we don't.

What are the stories you want people to tell about you?

The ought to be a worldwide cultural taskforce that just stops you when you have ideas like combining The Red Desert with an armored car heist movie.

When things go right it's hard to figure out why, but when things go wrong it's really easy.

You’re never going to learn something as profoundly as when it’s purely out of curiosity.

Its really hard to recall the day you became friends with special people.

It was a miracle to me, this transformation of my acorns into an oak.

We have a spiritual community but everyone lives where they want to. I recommend certain areas to live because of their power.

Imagining the future is a kind of nostalgia.

If I fancy a girl, I'll tell her. I'll say: 'You're fit.

I love 'The Killing', I love 'Homeland' and 'Mad Men', all those shows that lean into the tone of things.

Selling my soul would be a lot easier if I could just find it.

I'm a very emotional person.

I'm such a weirdo. I'm animal-mad, so my ideal date would probably be something involving going to see animals.