Bound, we knew it was going to be about lesbians. We made it for people who are kind of like us, who are generally kind of bored by movies today.

You don’t improvise. Well, you might improvise in a moment, trying to find something but for the most part everything is written by Woody, every word.

When I want to understand what is happening today or try to decide what will happen tomorrow, I look back.

Making a film that’s supposed to be fun to watch is really hard – that’s the weird irony of it.

I’m always interested in the working class people. I am one. They’re subjugated, they’re paid very little and they can make it in show biz.

With a movie you’re creating from the beginning this particular work, let’s not call it work of art, because very few movies are works of art, let’s just call them bits of popular culture, whatever...

If it can be written, or thought, it can be filmed.

The script was a synthesis of making mythology relevant in a modern context, relating quantum physics to Zen Buddhism, investigating your own life.

The ideals and principles for which Dr King fought have never been forgotten and are as relevant today as they were 40 years ago.

We collaborate on everything. I’m involved in the writing and pre-production. There’s a whole bunch of people who keep in touch at every step about everything.

With Bound, we wanted to pull at conventions, because you begin to wonder, Why do these stereotypes exist? Where do they come from? You use that as the subtext.

I think violence in a cinematic context can be, if handled in a certain way, very seductive.

And I’ve got some screenplays and plays ready to dip into when I need to.

I’m very comfortable with failure. I’m very comfortable being the guy who disappoints people.

From my point of view I work just as hard, I care just as much, if the films fail it doesn’t make me suddenly disown them, it just doesn’t.

You know how you smoke out a sniper? You send a guy out in the open, and you see if he gets shot. They thought that one up at West Point.

You know, our sense of individuality is just the number one target of civilization.

Working hard is very important. You’re not going to get anywhere without working extremely hard.

The ideas dictate everything, you have to be true to that or you’re dead.

It’s sad – it’s sad for us old enough to remember when directors ruled, and films were substantially better than they are today. But it’s hard to argue with those kinds of grosses.

The urge to purge the material I come up with is, I guess, an ongoing process.

It’s a mistake to confuse pity with love.

When a film like Chris Nolan’s Memento cannot get picked up, to me independent film is over. It’s dead.

I’m hands-on in areas where I can make a difference. There’s no sense in me standing on set; the director doesn’t need me there.

As we went into production, there was no song for Olivia and no idea where we would put it. It was not even on the production schedule.

If you still want to kill him, do me a favor and take him outside. Those are new sheets.

Not a single person I named hadn’t already been named at least a half-dozen times and wasn’t already on he blacklist.

I’m developing some other things in other genres, including one dramatic piece. So, anything’s possible.

I don’t know why directors sign on to these projects and completely rewrite everything.

Well you know, Woody doesn’t rehearse, as opposed to my own method of directing where I really work with actors around a round table for weeks, examining the values of the material, so his technique...

A hair divides what is false and true.

Another thing that really excites me: I’d like to do multiple versions of the same film.

It’s all about the same thing, being able to pull people into a situation where you have a vision, and transport that vision off the page.

You are not an active creator of the film.

You sit at the board and suddenly your heart leaps. Your hand trembles to pick up the piece and move it. But what chess teaches you is that you must sit there calmly and think...

The script was too disturbing. We showed it to some people in Hollywood who said, This is a bad idea. I can’t make this. I’m rich.

A lot of people like to do certain things, but they’re not that good at it. Keep going through the things that you like to do, until you find something that you actually seem to...

We had to do the same thing here. To top that sequel was quite a task. Mike had a couple of good conceptual humour and character ideas, which got me back into it.

You can kind of tell what’s working and what isn’t. We work on part of the script ourselves and then switch. And we rewrite each other’s stuff.

If the film has a seductive nature at all, it’s there to draw the viewer in, but I create the visuals in a way that seems absolutely inevitable to me.

And with Aaron, I’d have to find a reason not to work with him.

In Full Frontal and K Street, I learned to take advantage of the mobility that digital provides.

I didn’t believe that I’d ever be lucky enough to be able to make a living as an actor.

I didn’t want to see George Hamilton playing me, I wanted the real thing.

You know, sometimes I feel like I walk around with a target on my back with the films I make.

You simply have to put one foot in front of the other and keep going. Put blinders on and plow right ahead.

The concept of absurdity is something I’m attracted to.

It’s the unusual leading man. Most of the Hollywood leading men are powerful and capable and strong, heroes. He has this vulnerability, he’s fragile, he struggles to find a way to live from day to...

There should be more women directing; I think there’s just not the awareness that it’s really possible.

It’s crazy how you can get yourself in a mess sometimes and not even be able to think about it with any sense and yet not be able to think about anything else.