It is really cool to have created a movie that has turned out to become the biggest movie of the year.

It is really cool to have created a movie that has turned out to become the biggest movie of the year.

It's... a hard thing for a director, to think you came up with a shot, something from your mind, and someone died while doing it. It's the worst thing you'll ever have to live with. It was very hard for me to get back on the horse again.

I love doing big movies. It's awesome! You have all these toys. The thing I like about this movie is, like they always say, directors have the biggest train sets! Don't tell anyone, but I'd do this for free.

We don't make movies for critics. I've done four movies; there's millions upon millions upon millions of people who've paid to see them. Somebody likes them. My greatest joy is to sit anonymously in a dark theater and watch it with an audience, a paying audience.

What I look for in a script is something that challenges me, something that breaks new ground, something that allows me to flex my director muscle. You have got to think fast in this business, you've got to keep reinventing yourself to stay on top.

The press don't like to say nice things because nice is boring. It's much better to label me the devil. What we do is not brain surgery. We are entertainers, plain and simple, and we're responsible to bring that money back, to make a profit.

I allow a lot of room for improvisation and funny stuff. I always feel planned.

Everybody knows about Pearl Harbor. The thing that really fascinated me is that through this tragedy there was this amazing American heroism.

I go out there to win. People don't care if you die in this business. The only way I get back is with success.

Fast cars are my only vice.

I'm at that point in my life where I definitely want to get married soon. I've got my dogs as surrogates, but I'm ready for kids.

For me, the great joy is to watch an audience watching what I've made. To hear not a peep from the audience at the right moment, and then to hear the laughs and the cheers.

Maybe I have just a younger voice than many other directors.

A lot of directors don't want the pressure of a movie the size of Pearl Harbor. But I love it. I thrive on it.

I can be very reserved about things. My business side isn't shy. I can be like a general. But I've got a shy side. I'm also a lot deeper than people think, and a lot more sensitive. But I don't let people in too much.'

Do you know what directors go through? It's just hell. Like, why do I work so hard - to think I'm only going to see this movie five times and then never see it again 'cause I'm so sick of it? What is it worth, honestly?

It's great that I get accused of not being politically correct. People need to take themselves less seriously. This world is so screwed up as it is, we've all got to relax a bit more.

And a lot of the artists and people that we hired were fans of Transformers growing up, so having so many fans working on my crew really kept me on point.

Directing is not a job. It's more like a career. Which is great!

I look at directing as a sporting event. It's a race, a marathon. It's great when it clicks, which is why I push my crews so hard so we can excel.

I make movies for teenage boys. Oh dear, what a crime.

I make movies that audiences like, that I'd want to see. That's all.

I'm done with effects movies for now. When you do a movie like 'Transformers', it can feel like you're doing three movies at once - which is tiring.

I'm one of the few directors that actually shoots a lot in camera.

Nobody in the world knew about Megan Fox until I found her and put her in 'Transformers.' I like to think that I've had some luck in building actors' careers with my films.

There are things that I invented - the creaky geriatric robot that is always grumpy, for example, or the little wheelie guy, he's not in the Hasbro lore. But kids love that stuff - this little guy as a pet on a chain. They gravitate towards it.

A person should always speak in a respectable manner.

We all have our time machines. Some take us back, they're called memories. Some take us forward, they're called dreams.

I have done everything in my life very normally. And marriage is definitely there on my agendas in life. But I don't know when will it happen.

I look up to Tegan & Sara, obviously, Adele and Natalie Maines from the Dixie Chicks. All these artists are strong in their convictions, and they haven't changed who they are for the music business.

The wrong Democratic reaction to a stupid Republican utterance is to play hurt.

I've been in a competitive situation almost all my life. I've been having a competition with myself and trying to be the best I could be.

Personalization is everywhere. We are constantly asked, directly or indirectly, to create Our Own Whatever - containing and limited to our 'favorite sources of information.' Republicans do that; Democrats do it; environmentalists do it; terrorists do it; science fiction enthusiasts do it. That's a real problem, I think.

I wanted to give people - which is fairly bizarre considering my whole life is contemporary dance really - I wanted to give people a really fulfilling sense that they had seen a white classical ballet - in a very pure form.

What I worry about would be that you essentially have two chambers, the House and the Senate, but you have simply, majoritarian, absolute power on either side. And that's just not what the founders intended.

A pitfall of making a comedy with a studio-and it's also an American cultural thing-is that I get tired of being encouraged to go always for laughs.

I never heard the word 'compromise' used. So I'm starting to believe that these terms only come into play to try and force Republicans to do what the Democrats want.

What we need is more people who specialize in the impossible.

I shaved my head about 15 years ago and the first time I shaved it, I started running my hand through my hair and it was very therapeutic.

Rights that do not flow from duty well performed are not worth having.

I am not the world's most confident person.

As for my support for Obama, remember that I was brought up in Washington. It was an all-black city when I was a kid. And I've always been very pro-African-American - or whatever phrase we now use.

You shouldn't marry unless the both of you are on the same page on a lot of things. Life is going to deal you blows, and you have to be together. Your values and priorities have to be on the same page; otherwise, it won't work.

I think childhood is to everyone a lost land.

Wins are the most important measure for goalies, I think. Certainly it's a great accomplishment.

I kind of do the drawing with the painting in mind, but it's very hard to guess at a size or a color and all the colors around it and what it will really look like.

1950s education didn't agree with me. I was totally lost.

What I have done in my nine year career was just a glimpse of what I can do.