"I've made some bad movies. And I really enjoyed it!"

"If you want to know about my politics, the only way to do that is to look at my work."

"All my life I've had the privilege to make my living with my imagination, and the most important thing has been to see my creative life grow. I was educated to do that and have lived accordingly."

"I want to make movies about my country from my point of view."

"I always loved the way music made me feel. I did sports at school and all, but when I got home, it was just music. Everybody in my neighborhood loved music. I could jump the back fence and be in the park where there were ghetto blasters everywhere."

"The thing that most attracts me to historical fiction is taking the factual record as far as it is known, using that as scaffolding, and then letting imagination build the structure that fills in those things we can never find out for sure."

"I ask myself: Would I have been any worse off if I had stayed home or lived on a farm instead of shock treatments and medication?"

"Just as I shall select my ship when I am about to go on a voyage, or my house when I propose to take a residence, so I shall choose my death when I am about to depart from life."