I Am Confident Only When

If You Get Stuck And It Feels A Little Stiff, Then You Do Have To Mess It Up To Find It. But Other Times It's Really Written And You Just Stick To Your Guns And Do It As Elegantly And As Concentrated And As Committed As You Can.

I'm An Optimist. I Hope If A Movie's Good That It Will Be A Success, But That's Not Always True, Just Because Of Popular Taste Or Any Other Reasons. When Something Doesn't Do Better Than It Deserves To In Your Mind, It's Pretty Transparent - You Usually Know Why. Is That A Comfort? Yes, Because It's Logical. Does It Make You Happy? No, Because If You Think A Movie Is Beautiful Or Interesting, You Want To Share It. Sometimes You Make Very Interesting Movies That Aren't Meant For Everybody. But This Is A Capitalist Society, So Everything Conspires To Put Value On Whether It Sells Or Not.

I Aspire To Be An Instrument Of The Director. I'm Happiest Like That. The Stronger The Director, The More I'm Willing To Give Them.

While We Have A Very Strong Popular Culture, The Roots Of American Culture Are Very Shallow, And We Put Emphasis On How A Movie Does As Far As The Box Office Goes. Many Years Ago, It Would Have Been Vulgar To Print Box - Office Grosses In The Paper. Now The New York Times Does It, And It's The Big Story For People Interested In Arts And Entertainment On Monday. Which Is Why Emphasis Has Shifted Away From Filmmakers And Fallen On Movie Stars And Business People.

The Truth Is, If You're Around Long Enough, You Have A Story About Everyone. But It's Best To Keep Your Mouth Shut Sometimes.