Do or do not. There is no try. Only do.
I just want to work with talented people who are enjoyable to be with, and take big huge risks from high comedy to deep, dark, brooding drama, to thriller. I just want to go back and forth.
Once you get a character, you lock it in your heart - it's there.
I was a weird kid. I should've been gay because I listened to a lot of Broadway musicals. I don't know why I'm not gay.
I don't look back, I just go forward. I'm just proud of the fact that my parents were immigrants and we had nearly nothing, and all of the sudden, with the help of a lot of people and my parents as a model, I amounted to something.
Impossible to see, the future is.
When I did Yoda, me and three other people worked our asses off, and I was sweating every single day, it was tough as hell. Now that it's CGI, 24 people work on Yoda, and I get all the credit -- I do nothing.
First impression is unfair, because a first impression of somebody is guarded, and you don't know the person.
Sure there's a difference with puppet-craft - who cares? I don't care about the puppet-craft, I care about what works. Who cares about the puppet and craft? It's not about that. It's about compelling an audience, and touching an audience in some way.
In a stage play, you kill the leads and they come out for a bow - in a movie, they don't come out for a bow, they're dead.
A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense, never for attack.
If I'm intimidated, I shouldn't be directing a movie. I gotta treat 'em as characters, not as stars. It's hard to not treat Marlon Brando as a legend, a star, it's difficult not to treat Robert De Niro as a star, but that had to go away very fast after I knew them, because I had to work with them. I'm the director, I'm the boss. They're looking to me for guidance.
Our job as directors is to entertain an audience, it's not just to do it for the director. You might as well sit in a white room and look at the movie for the rest of your life - it's ridiculous.
I was a weird kid. I shouldve been gay because I listened to a lot of Broadway musicals. I dont know why Im not gay. I listen to a lot of jazz and world music, like African or Cuban music. Something that has vitality to it. A lot of the American stuff just feeds on itself.
I just want to do good work. That's all I want to do. I don't have big aspirations like being the President of the United States, I just want to do good work. That's all.
I'm most proud of my kids, for one, and my family and my parents. Outside of that - what am I proud of? I don't know. I don't look back, I just go forward. I'm just proud of the fact that my parents were immigrants and we had nearly nothing, and all of the sudden, with the help of a lot of people and my parents as a model, I amounted to something. And I'm doing some very decent work.
I'd like to read a book sometime. I've never read a book before. That'd be an adventure. I understand they have pages and everything. Yeah, I've got to do that sometime.
I'm always amused that people zero in on one thing, and it's the wrong thing to zero in on, but nevertheless, the reason they do that is because the voice is what they know - the voice represents everything about the character, that's why.
I've done TV for tons and tons of years, so I'm not crazy about doing more TV, but with films, all I want to do are different projects that aren't all the same.
I've always wanted to do non-comedies, I've always done dramas, comedies, music, and I always like to bop around and do different things. I'm looking for something a bit tougher, more muscle mass, something small, but the thing is, I get all the best comedy scripts, I don't get all the best drama scripts. So I'll just go with what's the best script.
I have no idea what a British sensibility or a British sense of humor is. I have no concept of what that is. I have no concept of what American sensibility is. I was born in Great Britain, but I was only there for six months, and we moved to Belgium, where I grew up. I love Britain, I lived there for nine years doing shows and things, but I don't know what a British sensibility is. I'd like to have someone tell me what an American sensibility is.
I don't like to have these words banded about, like "British sense of humor," "American sense of humor," though I'll be damned if I know what they are.
I want to get into the theater. I really wanted to be a theater director, but I turned out to be a movie director.
I've always wanted to do non-comedies, I've always done dramas, comedies, music, and I always like to bop around and do different things.
I love Britain, I lived there for nine years doing shows and things, but I don't know what a British sensibility is. I'd like to have someone tell me what an American sensibility is.
