One of the things that's great about New York is that it is not a one-industry town. It has education academia the service industry arts publishing theater politics fashion finance as well as movie-making.

There's only one thing that can kill the movies and that's education.

I love my early movies but naturalism is an artist's early style. Now I want to deal with feelings dreams an acceptance of irrationality.

I put a lot of faith in dreams. I know that big movie roles and opportunities are going to happen.

Field of Dreams is the only movie - and I saw it in the theater - on an afternoon when I was on location somewhere and there were like 12 people in the theater. I was just so devastated I couldn't get out of my seat. And I sat and watched it a second time.

No movie influenced me more to go after my dreams than 'Flashdance.' After seeing it I took 15 dance lessons a week. I cut all my sweatshirts. I did the 'Maniac' thing.

I feel more influenced in my own work by dreams than I do by other writers' works in a way. Or by popular culture movies - what else is there to write about than love and loss?

If dreams are like movies then memories are films about ghosts.

I don't have a problem with my body. I don't diet and I'm not hiding anything. I'm not going to be the subject of a movie of the week 10 years from now.

I think violence cynicism brutality and fashion are the staples of our diet. I think in the grand history of story-telling going back to people sitting around fires the dark side of human nature has always been very important. Movies are part of that tradition.

Being non-commercial is never an ambition. Movies come together at different points for fortuitous reasons. You do them as you get the opportunity as opposed to doing them when you choose to or design to.

So much of it is the design of the shot or the motion of the character it's the work you do so that it has the same things that are in the movie. In just a few frames it's got to communicate something clearly and dramatically.

My biggest role as director on the film is keeping a sense of the overview - how to cast the movie and shoot it in such a way that it will cut together. And how to design the style and tone.

One of the best animated films I've seen come out of Disney was the Tarzan movie. I wasn't crazy about the story or the design on Tarzan's face but the traditional animation was spectacular.

I was a cartoonist when I was at university but I decided to go into movie making knowing that I could still draw by doing movies design work story boards and such.

Hitchcock had to fight to the death to make his movies.

I think that obviously there is a perverse attraction to a fundamentally changed world or the end of the world. There is a death wish a perverse death wish. Not just for ourselves not just for the movie 'Death Wish ' but for the end of all human life.

Movies like that aren't about the visual effects and explosions. They're human stories about family about life about death.

Even when you're making a movie about life death is a presence and I guess it's part of my dramatic viewpoint. I'm not sure why exactly.

Even when you're making a movie about life death is a presence and I guess it's part of my dramatic viewpoint. I'm not sure why exactly. Maybe I'm drawn to it as a story element.

My mom and dad - they were always there. They were always on the set. They focused on our family life. The entertainment business wasn't the end-all. They weren't out to get the next big paycheck or the next big movie. It was about 'What can we do as a family.'

I miss my Dad. My Dad loved cheesy monster movies so we'd have Godzilla movie marathons. Those are some of my favorite memories laughing at how the monster outfits were so bad like black garbage bags for heads.

Whenever I did a good performance my Dad and my uncles who were rabid movie fans took me to the movies. There began my underlying love affair with film.

My dad was born in Chicago in 1908... his parents came from Russia. They settled in Chicago where they lived in a little tiny grocery store with eight or nine children - in the backroom all together - and my grandmother got the idea to go into the movie business.