You know it's always amazed me - I think the most startling thing that's happened in the last couple of decades is that there is no sort of objective reporting anymore.

Yeah, I had an idea to make a very scary movie, based on a kind of serial murderer that preys on tourists.

Well, like any time you're shooting documentary stuff, you've got to be in the moment, and you've got to be able to be in control enough to capture what's happening.

You really are as hot as your last movie. And it goes away really quickly.

Well, I just think through your career you go through different phases, and I just got sort of uninspired by the whole studio process of making and releasing films.

So I like to try to go back and develop pure visual storytelling. Because to me, it's one of the most exciting aspects of making movies and almost a lost art at this point.

But, number one, I think traditional noir doesn't work in contemporary storytelling because we don't live in that world anymore.

You know, I listen to contemporary music all the time.

You know it's always amazed me - I think the most startling thing that's happened in the last couple of decades is that there is no sort of objective reporting anymore.

I guess what's most surprised me in most of the reviews is that they don't seem to get the noir story in the dream sequence, so they analyze it like a straight noir movie.

And I always had this idea for making a movie about a femme fatale, because I like these characters. They're a lot of fun, they're sexy, they're manipulative, they're dangerous.

I've been obsessed with this kind of visual storytelling for quite a while, and I try to create material that allows me to explore it.

I've been sort of traveling around the country for ten years talking about independent features.

I'm always looking for a kind of new musical entity to sort of move into a motion picture venue.

I've dropped myself into straightforward character pieces in order to explore that form and reap its values. But you are sort of restricted visually when your first requirement is to tell a fairly straightforward story.

However, I spent most of my time in a Quaker school.

I don't see scarey films. I certainly wouldn't go see my films.

Godard is incredibly brilliant, the things he says. Apparently here in France, the most interesting thing when a new film of his is going to come out are his press conferences, because he's so brilliant.

That's what noir feels like to me. It feels like some kind of recurring dream, with very strong archetypes operating. You know, the guilty girl being pursued, falling, all kinds of stuff that we see in our dreams all the time.

I mean, I don't mind promoting a movie, or talking to the press if it's going to be used in some way.

I hadn't done just a straight-out comedy in a long time, just letting an ensemble do really good character acting, having them carry the movie as in my earlier pictures.

I do like directing other people's material.

When you make a movie outside the system and it's successful critically or a moderate financial success, you usually have to go back into the system and make a big hit.

It's always great to discover a new star of tomorrow.

And we've become very doubtful of our information sources, because they're all controlled by these huge multilateral corporations.

However, ironically, I was baptized Presbyterian, and went to a Quaker school for twelve years.

The biggest mistake in student films is that they are usually cast so badly, with friends and people the directors know. Actually you can cover a lot of bad direction with good acting.

The real trouble with film school is that the people teaching are so far out of the industry that they don't give the students an idea of what's happening.

You know, when people want to get any information, research information, it will all exist on these Web sites.

It's always great when you discover someone.

That’s what noir feels like to me. It feels like some kind of recurring dream, with very strong archetypes operating. You know, the guilty girl being pursued, falling, all kinds of stuff that we see in our dreams all the time.

I love writing, and I am never as happy as when I have a week, a month - three months - with nothing to do but write.

I get passionate about certain subjects, and then I'll write a whole play around it.

I didn't start to collect records and listen to guitar players properly until I went to art school, when I'd already been playing for five years. So my style was already formed, and that's why I think it's so unique.

Don't get me started about the media double standard.

One should never trust a woman who tells her real age. If she tells that shell tell anything.

Every morning I jump out of bed and step on a landmine. The landmine is me. After the explosion, I spent the rest of the day putting the pieces together.

I have a very pop voice, but there's so much of me I associate mostly with urban music, so I try to blend the two.

I wanted to escape so badly. But of course I knew I couldn't just give up and leave school. It was only when I heard my mom's voice that I came out of my hiding place.

As you emphasize your life, you must localize and define it... you cannot do everything.

I was a huge ham in school in Atlanta.

Western civilization shapes the content of my films, provides me with subjects that haven't been used before.

We all have dark shadows in our self that come out every now and then.

You want hot days to get your fruit ripe but then you want it to cool off nicely at night so that the grapes stay on the vine longer and develop complexity.

If you don't trust the pilot, don't go.

The best thing about being on the road in general is just playing every single night in front of people that are genuinely fans of your music.

Before publishers' blurbs were invented, authors had to make their reputations by writing.

My success has been as full of luck as a crapshooter's dream.

If I can make a career for myself after Potter, and it goes well, and is varied and with longevity, then that puts to bed the 'child actors argument'.