 But my sense in talking to people when I travel is that the film business is not that dissimilar from a lot of other businesses. |
| I'm in the process of working out an arrangement to make some very, very, very small films in the midst of all these films and maybe that will help. But you get tired of talking. You just want to do it. |
| When things go right it's hard to figure out why, but when things go wrong it's really easy. |
| I look at other filmmakers and see skills in them that I wish I had but I know that I don't. I feel like I have to work really hard to keep myself afloat, doing what I do. But I find it pleasurable. |
| I think I'm good at amplifying an actor's strengths, and minimizing their weaknesses. And they all have strengths and weaknesses. |
| In Full Frontal and K Street, I learned to take advantage of the mobility that digital provides. |
| A movie that costs only $1.6 million doesn't have to be a cultural event to turn a profit. |
| To me the director's job is to leave it in better shape than you found it, literally. |
| Making a film that's supposed to be fun to watch is really hard - that's the weird irony of it. |
| Lying is like alcoholism. You are always recovering. |
| Traffic is about drugs. As detailed a portrait as I can muster about what is happening in the drug world, from top to bottom, from policy to how things move on the street. |
| I had more fun making Traffic than either of the Ocean's films. |
| The great thing about the business is how Darwinian it is. We have to swim or die - if you are found wanting over a period of time, you've either got to change what you're doing or find something else to do. |
| I'm very comfortable with failure. I'm very comfortable being the guy who disappoints people. |
| I don't consider myself to be particularly gifted in the way that other filmmakers are gifted. |
| When a film like Chris Nolan's Memento cannot get picked up, to me independent film is over. It's dead. |
| When you're sent something and read it, either you can see it while you read it, or you can't. |
| Maybe I'll paint, do photography, just something else. I can see that. |
| I know why we can't have a frank discussion with our policymakers - if you're in the government or in law enforcement you cannot acknowledge that drugs are anything but inherently evil and morally wrong. |
| Another thing that really excites me: I'd like to do multiple versions of the same film. |
