I can zero in on subtle things because I'm holding the camera.

When I was young, my idea was to become a filmmaker.

I'm not one to dwell on rehearsal or preparation.

I like cinema. I am very fond of it. But from time to time I feel like having some time on my own.

I like films to be complete in their written form.

What I expect of a movie reviewer is that he should love cinema as much as I do.

I can zero in on subtle things because I'm holding the camera.

Married people from my generation are like an endangered species!

I never storyboard. I hate it. I don't understand why so many directors want to make comic strips of their films.

I am not a fan of westerns particularly.

I've always done 20 things at once. It's my way of staying alive, not to keep one dish cooking, but several dishes going. And I'm pretty organized.

My movies are, more or less, very short. I'm terrified of boring an audience.

But I won't work with the exact same crew film after film because I feel the work would get a little complacent.

You can work, shop, do everything from home, and I find this unsettling.

Yes, I am very prolific.

No, but it's not because I'm getting older that I'm trying to accelerate. But something very curious is happening: The older I get, the more ideas I'm getting.

I would rather my films be well-known than I be well-known.

Working with the same people is so much quicker and frees up your energy for other things.

I like films that are well-written and concise and with not a lot of room for improvisation.

If a film is very clever and well-written, that's what gives you freedom as a director.

Working with a bunch of actors is like trying to tune each violin.

You may think it's very presumptuous, but I really hope that my movies are going to turn people into better people.

Working with a bunch of actors is like trying to tune each violin.

I don't think I would have made it as a cricketer.

Polling is merely an instrument for gauging public opinion. When a president or any other leader pays attention to poll results, he is, in effect, paying attention to the views of the people. Any other interpretation is nonsense.

Ships are expendable; the whales are not.

Geologists have a saying rocks remember.

Over the years, Joy Division has become a huge part of music culture.

Sites need to be able to interact in one single, universal space.

I think what human beings need is to be able to laugh at the absurd, hold on to ambiguity, and learn to love nuance, instead of making everything one or the other, and structurally, so much of the Internet and online publishing doesn't have room for any of that.

The gesture of taking the watch from the pocket and looking at the time is very elegant for a man, but if I was going to create a pocket watch, I wanted it to be very modern. I didn't want to do old-fashioned.

Even a superpower has limits.

Destiny plays an important part, but talent and hard work is also important.

I think doing period piece is easier, because after a certain distance, everybody is equal, I think. The relative contemporary is harder. I think that's the way it is.

Seek and ye shall find

Lady Limelight is a jealous lady. She wants all of your attention. You don't have any time to think of anything else but Lady Limelight, because pretty soon that light will be shinning on somebody else. So you better do it while you can.

Killing Japanese didn't bother me very much at that time... I suppose if I had lost the war, I would have been tried as a war criminal.

Guys get... benched, replaced. They get injured; another guy comes in and becomes the starter. That happens all the time.

I drink a bucket of white tea in the morning. I read about this tea of the Emperor of China, which is supposedly the tea of eternal youth. It's called Silver Needle. It's unbelievably expensive, but I get it on the Web.

I was going to visit IBM for six months as a visiting scientist. Now, six months is a lot of time, so I came with a whole list of projects that I might want to work on.

There are a lot of guys who play in the NBA. There aren't a lot of guys who have a chance to win a gold medal, too.

The most fun I ever had on a movie was working with Albert Brooks. He's the caviar of comedy. I mean, nobody's funnier; nobody is smarter than Albert Brooks.

What I do for migraines when I get them, I listen to classical music, and I turn it up really loud.

Movies feel like work, and reading fiction feels like work, whereas reading nonfiction feels like pleasure.

I refuse to put make-up on just because the paparazzi are on my doorstep. I find it morally wrong.

No one wants to risk a million dollars on a few laughs. The big, flashy commercials are out. The soft sell is out.

Fully 57 percent of American college students are women. Life insurance companies sell more policies to women than to men. As women continue to draw on experience and education, they're accelerating their numbers in upper management, too.