I really dislike it when women reject feminism; that's ridiculous. I am a product of feminism. Without feminism I would not be making films.
I think morale is the hardest part, not comparing yourself to someone else. I think everyone compares themselves to someone more successful than they are. Everyone does it. You have to embrace your own rocky path.
Some actors can draw from their own darkness.
It never occurred to me to be a film director, partly because I hadn't seen a single film by a female director, but I liked the idea of being a writer moving to Hollywood and being unhappy; that sounded romantic and fabulous to me.
One thing I'm not is a moralistic filmmaker. I'm not trying to tell people what to do, and I'm not trying to lead.
I'm not trying to make the world a better place.
Movies are a commitment. They take years of your life and they have big consequences. That's one of the bad things about movies - you're stuck with the aftermath.
I had long periods where I couldn't make things happen, and then periods of enormous good luck. I guess the trick is to keep going in the periods when you're not lucky, when your stars are not aligned.
I don't think there is any one route to directing.... Other than that I think you just have to think 'By any means possible' and take any job you can that will get you experience. I also did a lot for free. I got paid virtually nothing for my first film, but it changed my life.
Punk rock, when I was a part of it, was called 'the underground.' There was something very attractive in all the hidden places, the hidden histories.
I remember being really interested in the sad parts of Los Angeles, of which there are many, and knowing we weren't up in the citadel on the hill, but we also weren't on the bottom. I was very interested in the poetry of failure as a child.
Mostly I'm just not American. I spent four years of my childhood here, but I think if you're Canadian you have a very different perspective. You don't think you're at the center of things.
In my early thirties I was working in television as a researcher. I was really stuck for a period of five years. I got to TV when I was thirty. I hated being a music writer, and kept wondering why I couldn't be doing the exciting things that my friends were doing in television.
There's absolutely no point in beating yourself up. Focus on going forward.
I make unpopular versions of popular things. I make a horror film and it's not a horror film. None of my genre movies function as genre movies.
It's interesting that gay men and young women have been the twin engines of the Bettie [Page] cult.
Frankly, you're always up and down. You're successful and then you're not.
I'm bored by films that revolve around a trick. I kind of know if a film is right for me; all the most important decisions are made intuitively.
The good part of working in TV is it's like being a studio director in old Hollywood and approaching different genres. It's a chance to try out different styles.
One of the secrets of being a great photographic model, as it is for a great film actor, is that you let the camera in. It's an intimacy that the model or actor creates with the lens, that then transmits itself to the viewer.
Americans always think they have to lead. I'm interested in ambiguity.
Growing up, I was lucky that my dad was never out of work. I was very fortunate in one way: that I never experienced real hardship, because my dad is this real dynamo. He was always working, so I had a sense of the ups and downs and endless disappointments, but at the same time I was never worried that we couldn't eat or pay the bills.
I was very ambitious at a young age. When I was six, I would tell everybody that I wanted to be an authoress.
I realized you can always make money; you just do a lot of things.
I grew up interested in the underside of Hollywood, which I think David Lynch does really well.
