Quotes

I've never done anything that's totally worked for me. It has always been very painful to watch what I've done. Filmmaking, by definition, is a process of failure and because of that I always seem to be looking for the blemishes in my work.

There's a really wretched invention called a zoom lens, which is the most abused, single abused, thing in filmmaking. It's more abused by young filmmakers than anybody. It's just a vile piece of equipment. As for tricky scene transitions, I know directors who sit down and literally look for those things as ways to get from scene to scene. I mean, what is the point of starting on a blade of grass with a blur behind you and racking focus then to the lady? I mean, what is so critical about that? I mean, why are you doing that? And then, the zoom lens thing does something that I don't think people understand. When you zoom in to something, you are not bringing the audience to the subject. You are bringing the subject to the audience. Major emotional difference. People do not realize that. You zoom back, you are not moving away from that subject. You are pushing the subject away from the audience. It's a tremendous difference.

I'm somebody who sits in the first few rows of the movie theater, and gets goosebumps when I just see the studio logo. I love film more than any inanimate thing in the entire world. And I can't think of anything more exulting than the conspiracy of trying to make something look wonderful, and to be wonderful.

I'm in love with the full, widescreen, two-four-oh aspect ratio of a film. I think it's elegant. I think it's unique to film. It doesn't look like a painting, it doesn't look like a television, it doesn't look like a theater. It looks like film. So I love it.

I think there's no excuse for not trying to make things look wonderful. I mean, I clearly fail more than I succeed... except I don't fail for lack of trying.