The majority of directors I've worked with didn't know how to talk to actors.

I write in the mornings. During my down time.

You gotta make the movie you want to make.

I'm not saying they won't be bigger projects someday.

And I love doing my own projects; that's what I've always wanted to do.

My partner, Beth Alexander, and I want to produce smaller films, but commercially viable films that will enable me to make the kinds of movies I want to make.

I have consciously not taken the role of a gangster, which has been offered to me far too many times.

The constraints of melodrama can be a great blessing, because they demand that all the characters involved - as absurd and extreme as they may initially seem - must stay utterly rooted in their own reality, or the whole project collapses.

It's more interesting because you get to research the history of the period, and all the different aesthetic elements that make a film, particularly this film, so stunning.

As a director you have to be careful you don't over-design the film. You have to be careful that the period aspect does not take over.

I didn't know you had to change diapers so often. I couldn't believe it - we must change them 10 times a day - each. So that's 20 diapers a piece a day.

When I write a screenplay, and when I direct, I always pull lines out.

I never go overbudget on my movies.

I like to see how I can do it for less money.

I was dissatisfied just being an actor.

People wear shorts to the Broadway theater. There should be a law against that.

As a director, I also get to sit and watch actors and learn from them in a way that I don't get to do when I'm just acting.

Big Night and The Impostors are both things that I wrote.

Sometimes it's difficult directing yourself on film because you can't quite separate yourself from the subject.

But usually I'll wake up and start writing about nine o'clock. I'll probably write for about three hours, and I'll do that over the next month and a half.

I'm actually one who will encourage directors to cut my lines.

I was always attracted to the past as a kid.

I mean, Scorsese's a genius, and that's one way of shooting.

Even The Impostors, as silly as it is, is a very intimate film, in a way.

The thing is, I'm a very practical filmmaker.

I've always considered myself an actor first and foremost.

I would rather just do the things I want to do.

I'm not interested in wasting money on a project.

So yes, I hope to act in other people's movies, big and small, because that's how I make my living, really.

Like Joseph Mitchell, I would scour the streets of New York and find little pieces of what other people think of as junk - and collect it.

I don't like to move the camera that much anyway.

I wanted to be an actor when I was a kid.

The majority of directors I've worked with didn't know how to talk to actors.

I make time to write.

I like to use all of myself, and acting wasn't doing that.

I'd read Up in the Old Hotel, and I wanted to do something with Mitchell's stuff for a long time.

I'm a control freak. Totally.

I love directing - it's always so involving, so challenging.

Actors love mental disorders, dialects, and corsets. Give them one of the three and they're happy.

What's fascinating is that when you write a script, it's almost a stream of consciousness. You have an idea that it means something, but you're not always sure what. Then when you get on the set, the actors teach you.

Young actors often don't think of the consequences of doing nudity or sex scenes. They want the role so badly that they agree to be exploited, and then end up embarrassing family, friends, and even strangers.

I've seen many actors go awry by making the wrong choices early on.

Actors are able to trick themselves into treating anything as if it's fantastic. It's a kind of madness really.

David Cronenberg knows what we actors do as artists.

I like doing them and they're ridiculous and the actors can improvise a lot, and they don't have to be really realistic characters that hit a very specific tone as in a feature film. They're really fun, I want to make more of them definitely.

I'm not in the business of becoming famous. And that's the advice I give to younger aspiring actors. Work onstage and do the little roles. In the end it's not important to be seen. It's important to do. There's a lot of disappointment in this business, but my family keeps me grounded.

Actors get pigeonholed very quickly, particularly movie actors. In the theater, one is more used to casting people against type and trusting that their talent and skill will get them through.

Comedians are not usually actors, but imitations of actors.

I was very pleased you know, and I was afraid that I might stick out, but I didn't. My happiest thing about that picture is that I proved that American actors can speak as well and also fit in with an ensemble like that.