I don't want to sound like a heroic woman or to seem full of myself, but I do have a core of trust that I'll figure things out and find my way. And if whatever I try is not a good experience, even that is a good experience. If something turns out lousy, it's interesting.
When I was growing up, there were a lot more arts in the public schools. Politically, America has screwed up on that.
I'm a firm believer in the idea that theater excels over film and TV in its ability to let people play with poetry.
My mother was okay with me not playing it safe. She made an agreement with my father that I was going to be raised differently than my brother and sister were. My parents went through the whole sixties rebellion with my brother and sister. But I didn't feel like I had to rebel because I didn't have anyone telling me I couldn't do something. I never went into that parents-as-enemies stage.
Children have an easier ability to tap into the surreal than adults do, in a funny kind of way.
The idea that all violence in movies is okay simply because it happens is bull. Directors and writers have a responsibility.
I think that both musicals and opera have a capacity to get to an inner emotional landscape.
Americans are attracted to the dark side. But which movies should be allowed to be violent and show that dark side, and which should not? I don't believe in censorship, but I do think there are horrible movies that are bad for you.
I believe that if you really have a strong idea, you can say, "What do you think? Let's see how my idea plays off yours."
You program music with an image and then people are desensitized.
Spider-Man is a genuine American myth with a dark, primal power, but it's also got this great superhero, and - hey! - he can fly through the theater at 40 miles an hour. It's got villains, it's got skyscrapers, it's colorful, it's Manhattan. I knew it would be a challenge, but I saw the inherent theatricality in it, and I couldn't resist.
And I just think that to introduce an unknown Shakespeare is thrilling, too - not to do Hamlet or Romeo and Juliet, to do the richer Shakespeare. People will come to this and not know the story.
Directing is much more psychological-it's a lot like being a general. And you have to be organized. While you're making a film, you have between two and 500 people asking you a billion questions.
I've had male executives say that my lead character was unlikable because she slept with a lot of guys.
What I don't have in theater is editing.
You know, I went to Oberlin. At that time, grades were - you elected to have them or not. It was all of that era where grades were out the window. But I did very well in school. I didn't really study the arts; I practiced the arts.
But I don't think there has ever been anything written on the nature of violent man as deep and as thorough as Shakespeare's Titus. I think it puts all modern movies and modern exploitations of violence to shame.
I am, to be quite honest, sick of hero stories.
We have often been attracted to the story of the other, the outcast. And he and I just loved working together, so it just kept happening, and our relationship is completely bound up with our work. We enjoy each other's art.
People will justify whatever for a good cause.
I have never had a problem with people not being able to understand the words and the meanings in Titus.
