The problem with most love stories in my opinion is that they're too simplistic.

Theres a kind of dream that movies sell to people: You can start as the lowliest person and rise to the top. Hit Me doesnt sell this fantasy.

Who could be more desperate than filmmakers?

I love moving through long spaces and being enclosed.

Like all independent movies, the first thing you're looking for is a name actor who will justify your financing.

You hear this said about actors sometimes, that they're fearless, but she [ Maggie Gyllenhaal] really is.

The movie that made me want to make movies was "Blue Velvet."

You don't make movies about "men" and "women." You make movies about this guy and this woman and if you get them right, you'll automatically connect with a lot of people.

I think a lot of young women are probably fearful or embarrassed or cautious or hiding whatever their particular sexuality might be. From the most odd to the just slightly abberrant.

Forgiveness makes you feel better. As soon as you forgive, you're free.

I feel a connection to many songs that I won't sing because I don't think they are right for me! There is something in my gut that immediately responds. There's no science to it.

That invisible hand of Adam Smith seems to offer an extended middle finger to an awful lot of people.

I had the wonderful benefit of growing up with parents that not only encouraged me to follow my dreams, but supported my aspirations through school and beyond.

I've been trying to catch up to it. Just trying to get with it, feel behind it a little bit, but that's good actually, probably. That way, I'm still sort of understanding it.

The world is a king, and like a king, desires flattery in return for favor; but true art is selfish and perverse — it will not submit to the mold of flattery.

How could you have had such a wonderful life as me if there wasn't a God directing?

Life begins as a quest of the child for the man, and ends as a journey by the man to rediscover the child.

The soul gives unity to what it looks at with love.

Nobody told all the new e-mail writers that the essence of writing is rewriting. Just because they are writing with ease and enjoyment doesn't mean they are writing well.