Now, being on the cover of Vanity Fair is as important as being in great movies. The lines are very, very blurred.

I don't find movies interesting. I just want to do the movies that made me interested in getting into movies, and they're few and far between.

I have a problem with the blatant celebrity exhibitionism that happens in this business and being sold purely as a brand.

When you look at some of the most respected actors there are and the crap that they're in... it didn't used to be that way.

I was making a lot of independent movies before the independent movement.

I don't like people who use the press to advance themselves in a way that they haven't earned as an actor, performer or director.

Training Day was such a Hollywood movie I didn't like it.

I made three movies in 1995 and I was unhappy with all of them: Sleepers, Incognito, and Speed 2.

I dont have a problem with fame. I got into this business intending to be very successful, but I wanted it to be at my price.

I have all this time between projects, and I'm not so sure that's a healthy thing. It's scary, because at 36 I'm woefully unqualified for anything else.

Mostly I do films that mainstream Hollywood wouldn't touch.

My method seems to change to everything, especially when you get older. You have more of a resonance to be able to grab to. When you're younger, you have these big boundaries because you don't know how to get you to where you are. When you get older, you have a few tricks that you can pull off.

Pacino's always played the suffering prince. I just find that interesting.

Violence doesn't seem to bother people anymore - they're inured to it. And I think it has a lot to do with the violence in movies and video games - it doesn't bother people as much. I'm not so sure it evokes a reaction anymore.

I would never do something like Speed 2 again. If Id wanted to make those kind of movies I could have signed up for five of them while it was in the can. It wasnt worth it to me. That was just an innocuous, boring movie.

You can take a handful of dollars, a good story, and people with passion and make a movie that will stand up against any $70 million movie.