To use an image, making a film is like climbing a mountain or crossing an ocean. Every day has its challenges.

I have many projects in various states of development. Some are on paper and some are in my head. But as I go on, I feel the need to be guided in my choices.

What really enthralls me is working with the actor and seeing where you can go with that. It's in that exchange and that relationship.

The importance is getting to something truthful and in that moment can only be in that moment. I don't like to use the word "improvise," but it's a continual writing of the film.

I didn't really think in terms of clichés or non-clichés.

I grew up in and identify with and that she works and exists in.

When it comes time to make the scenes concrete and shoot them, I want the freedom for it to exist which means adding, subtracting or modifying.

The writing of the script is a continual process. There's the first draft and then many, many re-writes here and there.

My film (Black Venus) had been very emotionally draining and difficult because I had identified so much with the lead character, Saartjie Baartman.

Young lovers seek perfection. Old lovers learn the art of sewing shreds together. And of seeing beauty in a multiplicity of patches. - How to make an American Quilt

I hope the cooks who are working for me now are getting that kind of experience so they can use what they're learning now as a foundation for a great career.

Personally I do not believe in the likelihood of Persian oil deposits being worked at profit.

The old saw says, 'Let a sleeping dog lie.' Right. Still, when there is much at stake it is better to get a newspaper to do it.

Impossible is not a fact, it's an opinion.

You cannot possibly invent painting all by yourself.

The freedom from something is not true freedom. The freedom to do anything you want to do is also not the freedom I am talking about. My vision of freedom is to be yourself.

If I can play one note and make you cry, then that's better than those fancy dancers playing twenty notes.

I work hard and I will always work hard. But I feel very lucky with the way that it has all come together.