Onstage or in films, you do affect peoples’ lives, and sometimes that’s very gratifying. But still, there’s this little voice that says you should be doing something that matters.

When I do short films, I try to do something completely out of my comfort zone, out of my element.

We’re lucky enough, especially in these ‘Madagascar’ films, to be working with some of the best people in the industry, who are not only great actors, but great comedians and improvisers and filmmakers. And they...

I want all my films to look distinctly different, like some other directors I admire. But in a way, I can’t really take myself completely out of the movies I make.

It’s no good pretending that any relationship has a future if your record collections disagree violently or if your favorite films wouldn’t even speak to each other if they met at a party.

I just think TV is becoming more and more interesting in a way. Films are more and more derivative, you know, whether it’s ‘Transformers 2’ or ‘Shrek 5’, or it’s yet another iteration of another...

My goal is to keep making films and grow as a film maker; that’s always my goal.

England is strictly class-based. What’s surprising is how many films are still made with a load of people in silly frocks running around gardens and talking in middle-class accents.

I’m hooked on Polanski’s films, his psychological thrillers. I love ‘Rosemary’s Baby,’ I love ‘Repulsion.’

When you’re making under-million-dollar films, it becomes so much about actors’ availability. When you’re using big actors for small films, you’re in second or third position to the big monoliths.

But you know, as you say, the original versions of my films are getting out there, slowly.

Authors of books are not given very much control over the films that are made from their books.

The public’s nerves are raw and edgy. You have to be discreet and understanding about the films you are showing.

Get out and make films. There are so many cameras now to suit any budget, so there are no excuses.

I’ve made several films that haven’t been shown.

The stakes are high on every film now because there’s the opening weekend. The first week is extremely crucial; increasingly, films are being judged in terms of opening day, opening weekend, then first week. People...

My criteria for doing theater has always been slightly different than my criteria with movies, in that there are a lot of reasons to do films, having to do with location, money, and first and...

As long as you keep your budgets small, there’s a way of making films.

I’m a pluralist. I’ve always argued that as many different films as possible should be made.

Congress should make it so that all sex scenes in all films should be provided with a screaming baby sound track. That should help take away all the fun and may show a major decrease...

I’d like to think that my films are personal enough to exist without hearkening back to their respective novels.

I couldn’t stand still at a desk for another year. I wanted to go out there and make films.

I didn’t go to classes there, but ended up at the Cinematheque, and there it opened up even wider because there I saw a variety of films from all over the world.

As I began making my feature films, it was a great adventure. It was about constructing something I saw in my head or I had designed on storyboards and capturing that on film.

There is a ban on Indian films in Pakistan, so that’s half of our market gone.

I don’t like to label films with a genre.

My purpose is to make films that will help people to live, even if they sometimes cause unhappiness.

For me, competition is good; that is what keeps me on my toes and keeps me going. I am always trying to better my own work, do better than my earlier films… do films that...

In films people basically work for the camera, you know, and that’s why actors can hate each other and not be speaking to each other and still look as if they’re in love because really...

I see myself doing Harry Potter films as long as I’m enjoying it and as long as they are going to challenge me as an actor. I want to be an actor – it’s my...

I think I would have a better time writing films rather than directing.

TV is sort of the only way to go for an actress my age to make a decent salary; with independent films, you just can’t.

As in, I think ‘Badlands’ is one of the funniest films of all time: ‘Every day I wish I was carried off to a magical land, but that never happened’ is one of the funniest...

Films can be entertaining without shying away from exploring something. They can be magical and have fantasy, but also can have enough reality that you can be really emotionally invested.

As with instant replay, NFL Films’ use of slow motion, camera angles and the narration of Facenda was not just a technical breakthrough but a conceptual breakthrough.