When I was born, the economy wasn't in a great state; it was the Depression, and my father had to be quick to try and find work.
Everybody thinks making films back to back is a big deal but they did it all the time in the old days.
Fate pulls you in different directions.
I don't really get into a big intellectual analysis of why I am going to do a certain script or not.
When I was a kid, I thought movies just came from air. I thought they just appeared.
You hear about actors being late and all that sort of stuff, but you never find that with an actor who's directed, because an actor who's directed understands all the problems your production is going through.
Every story has its demands.
I'm a day-to-day-type person.
I had three points I wanted to make: That not everybody in Hollywood is on the left, that Obama has broken a lot of the promises he made when he took office, and that the people should feel free to get rid of any politician who's not doing a good job. But I didn't make up my mind exactly what I was going to say until I said it.
When you work with kids, especially, you want to be ready to turn the camera on at a moment's notice.
As much as I love the Western genre, I figured if I kept doing those, I'd eventually run out of steam on that, and that would've been the end of it.
You have to steal a lot. You have to have a criminal mentality to be a film director.
I grew up with J. Edgar Hoover. He was the G-man, a hero to everybody, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation was the big, feared organization. He was ahead of his time as far as building up forensic evidence and fingerprinting. But he took down a lot of innocent people, too.
Nobody looks like they did when they were 20, so why not take advantage of the fact that you're changing, emotionally as well as physically?
At the major studios, you see people wanting to remake a TV series, wanting to make a sequel.
And I think it's that time. And I think if you just step aside and Mr. Romney can kind of take over. You can maybe still use a plane. Though maybe a smaller one. Not that big gas guzzler you are going around to colleges and talking about student loans and stuff like that.
Every movie I make teaches me something. That's why I keep making them.
I'm not a chick-flick enthusiast.
In past generations, people would try to play younger than they really are. My trick is, I don't try to play younger than I really am.
You are always hoping that movie audiences are interested in characters and interested in story values rather than just mindless special effects. But you never know.
A lot of dumb pictures have made a lot of money, but that doesn't mean they're going to be anything cinema students will revel over in the future.