Independent filmmaking has always been there and it's not to be forgotten.

When I was young I used to sit in the cinema thinking wouldn't it be great if you could have a film in which the characters were like real people instead of being like actors.

I try and create for the audience something that relates to real-life experience.

Given the choice of Hollywood or poking steel pins in my eyes, I'd prefer steel pins.

I hope I make films where you walk away . . . with work to do, arguments to have, things to worry about, things to care about. In that sense, I would regard what I do as political.

My work is about life as you and I experience it. You're either lucky or you're not lucky; either your relationship works or it doesn't.

But films should be voyeuristic. What else is a film if you’re not snooping into somebody else’s lives?

There's a constant drip and trickle of life that goes into one's awareness really and consciousness of things.

I discover what my film is by embarking on the journey of making it.

The way an actor is trained doesn't ultimately have much bearing on my work. I'm interested in the actor as artist.

It's an unhealthy habit to say that life is what you make of it, and if you want to be happy, then you can be happy. That's just rubbish, basically.

I was that stupid, I realized. I was also stupid enough not to realize that sometimes even the most beautiful souls need to be shown love once in a while.

I had to create some good work habits and attitude.

My aim is to escape from the medium with which I work.

When I train, I erase all the limits and expectations of what I can do. I am powerful and anything is possible.

What woman says to fond lover should be written on air or the swift water. [Lat., Mulier cupido quod dicit amanti, In vento et rapida scribere oportet aqua.]

Without spontaneity in any sport, you cannot succeed.

My favorite piece [piece of music] is the one we hear all the time if we are quiet.

The greatest thing that we can do for the world is be America.

People more think of me as a party animal. Which, I am a self-proclaimed party animal, but I'm also the hardest working person you'll ever know.

For I shall learn from flower and leaf, That color every drop they hold, To change the lifeless wine of grief To living gold.