I feel very comfortable shooting music, and I think you can see that.

I really believe you can predict when someone has a great attitude, a real well of talent.

I feel very comfortable shooting music, and I think you can see that.

The SAS is the most elite of the special forces in the world. They are not people who go out and advertise; they keep it inside. They don't want anybody to know about them.

You'd be surprised how many movie stars still care about the work.

It's very clearly stated in the film: You make your own choices, and what you're always fighting is ego.

I make films about working class people.

But, unfortunately, sometimes that affirmation creates a sense that you deserve special treatment and recognition in areas where you're not so talented.

It isn't glamorous until after the film is finished, and you are at the premiere and getting your picture on the cover of magazines.

I also know what looks good before the camera, how to move the camera, and how to get a story on the screen.

We all get paid very, very well, and we have responsibilities.

If people are worried about the size of their trailers, I kind of say their priorities are off.

I try to get the best performance an actor can give.

An actor has to embody a role.

This devil loves mankind because men are going to always make the choice that will send him into ascendancy. He's been winning the game for a long time.

Ray Charles, in his own way, it's like at the beginning, Ray Charles changed American music, not once but twice.

And it's a question of how far we're willing to go in order to let the ego shine, in order to let that beacon penetrate not only the local scene but the world.

But a writer's contribution is literary and a film is not literary. When you take that stuff off the page, and cast the people who are going to fit into those roles, that's what being a director is.

It's much easier to work with an unknown.

Russell Crowe is very difficult, but it's worth it. He's the real thing. I can tell you this. Russell Crowe was just as difficult before he was an international star as he was afterwards.

Well I don't think I've scored my life exclusively to Ray Charles.

The whole concept of the devil is a metaphor on one level.

It was the era of Tab Hunter and Rock Hudson; they all had a certain look.

Look at Walter Huston in The Devil and Daniel Webster: It's an incredible performance.

Show business is one of those things that people can use to get themselves out of the lower rung of society.

My creative partner is a writer, and he's got an executive producing credit on this film. We've made three films together and I would never underestimate the impact of a writer.

When I finish a film, I put it away and I never look at it again.

Music has always been an important thing to me in my life and understand I've worked in the music business.

But the process of making a film is not glamorous. Certainly not my films.

Because when you have millions of people with this kind of need for gratification, and the culture is saying that it's possible for everyone to satisfy all of their needs and desires all of the time, there are obviously going to be clashes - clashes of ego.

The director's job should give you a sense of music without drawing attention to itself.

I'm not in front of the camera, they are. I encourage them; I build up as much of their confidence and ego as possible. They've got to take control; I can't act it out.

When you use music to worship you are not attempting to entertain.

Pop music, disco music, and heavy metal music is about shutting out the tensions of life, putting it away.

When I did the record, I was coming off a time when my contract had been sold and the music industry had changed a lot. I didn't understand how to make records for big labels. I was waiting for a new kind of record label to emerge.

You've got to realize. In the western world, regardless of what color you are, what title the music is, it's all played by the same notes.

Don't make music for some vast, unseen audience or market or ratings share or even for something as tangible as money. Though it's crucial to make a living, that shouldn't be your inspiration. Do it for yourself.

Whether I'm doing music or I'm walking down the street or I'm in a record store buying a record or I walk into a comic store and I'm buying comics or having a drink with my friends, it's the same me.

When rock came along the lyrics and melodies became less important and it bothered me to think that perhaps they might not regain the value they have to music - they are music.

I want to promote poetry to the point where you got all the baldhead kids running around doing poetry, getting the music out of the way and having only words, the spoken word, and then see what happens.

There is no music that can't be used politically, but the motives behind the creation of that music can be non-political.

The kind of music or the kind of arrangements that I do, the kind of musicians I choose, is just what I like to hear.

If not for music, I would probably be a very frustrated scientist. It's one way to answer the question, 'What is the meaning of life?' I feel music answers it better.

Since I'm allergic to various things, the army wouldn't accept me during the war, and I got into the Office of War Information, which sent music to Europe.

My singing is my hobby. It's me and my brother. We just enjoy writing music.

I was determined to carve out a music of my own. I didn't want to copy anybody.

I have tried to make the music a bit easier for them to understand.

What makes my approach special is that I do different things. I do jazz, blues, country music and so forth. I do them all, like a good utility man.

That music and the lyrical aspects of Razorblade Romance is so personal to me that, now with me being grown up a bit and meeting new people and doing new things, it makes me look at the same things I was writing about back in the day through a different colored lens.