The advice you give to young directors for sure is to go out and become some version of a successful movie actor. Do that first and say yes to people like Terrence Malick and Clint Eastwood and Woody Allen when they come and offer you movies. It's a great front row seat to filmmaking.
I can tell you that my contribution based on my interpretation of the book is unchanged. The other things, in terms of doing the research and following the trail of it, were probably pretty similar to what I would have done then. I think that what makes me celebrate that it took the 10 years is the various other people and contributors that I ended up having on board.
Putting something in a movie because it's in the news doesn't make it political to me. If you're not going outside the same old, same old, if you're not pushing the envelope, then you're not doing anything. A good movie is a political thing.
I just want real creative freedom without worrying about, you know, car payments.
There's the old notion that where there's choice, there's chaos, and where there's no choice, there's clarity. If you've got no choice, you've gotta be there, and you've gotta have your heart in it. It leads to a much less self-conscious life.
I don't believe there are climate skeptics. I think there are people who indulge in a culture of what can be reduced to Fox network thinking. That has nothing to do with the politics that apply to the protection of quality of life in any sense. It's like talking to a member of a cult.
Child-rearing is my main interest now. I'm a hands-on father.
I don't read newspapers too much , just because they tend to make me feel I have a political obligation that I think is a distraction from what my political offerings are going to be if I just make my movies.
I don't see life as an opportunity to see how far you can go in the pursuit of pain, although I think I've challenged it a bit.
The thing that's very close in the process is writing and acting, not directing. Directing's very different.
When I was growing up and somebody like Robert De Niro had a movie come out, it was a cultural event. Because he had such a confidence and a single mission that was so intimate.
That was madness. You're never going to bring one of those down with a handgun.
There is a kind of sense of truth and reconciliation that is non-formalized, but it's understood and accepted. Haitians are Haitians and there is an inherent loyalty that forgives an awful lot.
It has nothing to do with the emotional demands of a role; I've done comedies that are as draining to me as any drama.
In between, I go broke because I seem to do movies where you're not paid a lot as an actor.
I think if you want good things to happen for a country like Haiti, then you need to provide the circumstances where the Haitians can do that.
You need governance, but you also need a middle class, you need agriculture, they need to be able to export. I think that's probably the biggest issue, the job creation that could come with the kinds of things that Haiti has all the potential in the world to export.
When I buy a Nikon camera, I have no tolerance for the instructions. I'm ready to make some mistakes using it and get some bad pictures back until I've figured it out for myself.
You tolerate me. You really tolerate me!
I don't have any particular excitement about working with any specific director or actor at this point.
At this stage, what would be rewarding would be for audiences to want to watch.
I am a Justin Timberlake fan.
Haiti kind of gets a hold of you.
I can make a better living as an actor than I can as a director. Though I certainly would prefer to be directing movies.
Today, maturity is a word I associate with spirituality. It's one of those words that cause people to change their voice. When your voice gets higher because of what you're saying, there's a problem. To me, the conflict of life is part of the joy of life. There's got to be a recognition of the friction that exists. Maturity seems somehow about getting careful. I don't want to be careful.
