It's hard for me to say you have to accept that the world is meaningless and the landscape is there before and after. That's not something we learn much in our culture growing up.

The job of the writer and the filmmaker is not to impose his vision on the reality, but to be inspired by the reality and create a vision out of that.

Sometimes we have dreams, but we just can't make them. That's normal.

I never say Action or Cut. Never. I think that would disturb the life from happening in and around everything.

We're living in a world that says that if you engage in mass fraud, you'll be rewarded, but if you go down the street and steal an orange juice, you get arrested.

The people who run the major banks have MBAs and wear suits. And when those people in suits come to the homes of people who don't have a high school diploma, don't even speak English, and offer them a home at zero percent down, that doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense.

We're living in a time period where if a kid is on a plastic scooter that's one inch off the ground, mom and dad think he should have a helmet on. I don't think they should have a helmet on. They should break their leg and have an imagination. Otherwise, we're going to have a nation of accountants.

Most of the projects aren't that interesting anymore. There used to be a day when the studios made amazing films, and they were about human beings.

I think happy and hope is more hopeful when you acknowledge that there's awful things too.