The biggest challenge for me in every film is believing that what I have to say is important enough to have lots of people collaborate to make a whole movie. I work on this belief every day.

You have to know that your collaborators want you to make the movie that you want. Don't back down because you think it's nice to them. You need to have the film be the way that you want it.

To be a great artist, you have to be willing to take risks and to do things that no one would ever pay you for - at first.

The films I find boring are the ones that have no space for the audience's misconceptions.

Truthfully, my films don't get funded, they get adopted - and are made thanks to the generosity of others.

...[M]en are put in a sort of guard-post, from which one must not release one's self or run away...

Remember, before you can be great, you've got to be good. Before you can be good, you've got to be bad. But before you can even be bad, you've got to try.

Middle East has been in turmoil for thousands of years. For us to think that we're going to in there and fix that with a couple of little bombs and a few little decorations is relatively foolish.

I'm not sure that love and like aren't like cats and dogs: One can't grow up to be the other, but they can be taught to live under the same roof.

The straightest line between a straight distance is two points.

It's scary how easy promises were broken.

The mere process of growing old together will make the slightest acquaintance seem a bosom friend.

I was totally romanticizing the idea of Los Angeles when the Doors, Joni Mitchell, and Neil Young were hanging out there.

It's a terrible thing to be lonesome, especially in the middle of a crowd.

I don't believe in elitism. I don't think the audience is this dumb person lower than me. I am the audience.