The only advice I can really give to the young filmmakers is to be persistent, don't give up, and keep watching and making as many movies as you possibly can.

Belgrade has kind of a Dublinesque, dear-dirty charm.

My favorite sci-fi always uses its hook to amplify some bigger theme or idea - some emotional thrust.

Much of directing [a movie] is not directing but just listening and being present in the moment and just keeping your eyes open.

If you make something interesting, inevitably not everybody is going to like it.

You go from these high hopes when you're writing to just a desperate want of not making a complete fool of yourself by the end of it.

All my favorite movies are somebody else's least favorite movie.

You come out of each movie just thinking, "God, if we can fool them into letting us make just one more, we can get it right."

Writing sucks. I think it's terrible. Writing is not fun, and don't trust anyone who claims to enjoy it. Liars!

Writing in a lot of ways feels more like excavation than construction. It feels like you're uncovering this thing bit by bit, discovering what it is, instead of constructing it upwards.

Showing your movie to an audience... it's like your kid doing a piano recital. 'Just let it not fail. Please.

The only things I regret, and the only things I'll ever regret are things I didn't do. In the end, that's what we mourn. The paths we didn't take. The people we didn't touch.

We need to let ourselves be evangelized by the poor. They have much to teach us.

Determination is the strength needed to succeed.

If people keep buying poorly designed products, manufacturers and designers will think they are doing the right thing and continue as usual.

I don't get discouraged because of the comments. After all, they don't really know me.

Every artists wants to be applauded

People have their faults, but it doesn't prevent you from loving them.

It was hard to follow my dreams... I didn't let anything stop me.

Everyone asks for freedom for himself, The man free love, the businessman free trade, The writer and talker free speech and free press.

But there is much to be said for giving up ... grand ambitions and living the most ordinary life imaginable.