To me, the ultimate crime in an adaptation is the crime of reverence. A novel is one form of media, a screenplay is another, and a movie is yet another. There's even reverence to a screenplay.

Scripts don't get movies made.

The challenge in most car chases is you're trying to hide the fact that it's not the actor driving.

You've gotta understand: in July of '44, the Allies were still contained on the peninsula in western France and the destruction of Europe had not really begun. War had not really touched the European continent at that point.

I believe that as a writer and a director, you're only providing the skeleton of a character, and you're hiring actors to fill it out.

I am not interested in telling you what to think. My job is to show you what I think. Period.

I honestly never wanted to direct. It was only when I started to work on 'Alexander the Great' that I realized I had to direct. I saw something so specifically in my mind, I could not leave it to someone else.

I love films like 'Deliverance' where you can watch it over and over again and decode all of its many different meanings.

I'm saying, let's learn to reacquire a respect for the power of guns. This culture is so indifferent and disrespectful of guns that we should be terrified.

I love traveling around promoting different movies because I'm always looking at different places, and I always walk around to see the city.