I've always been interested in how we survive and how resourceful we are as Americans.
I've always been interested in UFOs.
I wouldn't have filmed The Color Purple if the book had been a big fat novel. The reason I read it is because it is thin.
Twenty years from now, there will still be a square screen, maybe even larger, and people will be sitting in a large, dark space, and they won't know each other unless they bring friends along.
I was afraid of small spaces and I was afraid of the tree outside my window, and I had all these phobias. I think many kids have those phobias, but I probably had more than most.
My filmmaking really began with technology. It began through technology, not through telling stories, because my 8mm movie camera was the way into whatever I decided to do.
I always like to play with my kids. I always have the time to do that. That's my priority, always has been, so just interacting with my kids, and being with them is great.
The Japanese had a very strong belief in Bushido, death before dishonour. They were fighting for their country; they were the aggressors in World War II.
In the whole history of movies, there has been nothing like Kubrick's vision. It was a vision of hope and wonder, of grace and of mystery, of humour and contradictions. It was a gift to us, and now it's a legacy.
When I was very young, I remember my mother telling me about a friend of hers in Germany, a pianist who played a symphony that wasn't permitted, and the Germans came up on stage and broke every finger on her hands. I grew up with stories of Nazis breaking the fingers of Jews.
Steve Jobs was the greatest inventor since Thomas Edison. He put the world at our fingertips.
I think all directors should be animators.
I am a very impatient director.
I have made almost as many films in England as I have in America. I will come back to England again and again.
I think the secret of great acting is that you have to bring your imagination to the party. You have to have a great imagination and you have to bring it every day when you're working. Your imagination and your skills as an actor are what see you through, not what you're wearing or where you are.
I once said that CGI makes you less inventive. At the time I was bemoaning the loss of the practical stunt. If a stunt can be done practically and safely, I'd rather do it old-style.
A lot of kids only know 'E.T.' from the digitally-enhanced version.
When war comes, two things happen - profits go way, way up and all perishables go way, way down. There becomes a market for them.
Documentaries are the first line of education, and the second line of education is dramatization, such as 'The Pacific'.
I turned down 'Harry Potter' and 'Spider-Man,' two movies that I knew would be phenomenally successful, because I had already made movies like that before and they offered no challenge to me. I don't need my ego to be reminded.
I'm 62 years old. Am I old enough to win a lifetime achievement award? Yes, I am. Thank you very much.
This is a time when we need to smile more and Hollywood movies are supposed to do that for people in difficult times.
As a Jew I am aware of how important the existence of Israel is for the survival of us all. And because I am proud of being Jewish, I am worried by the growing anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism in the world.
I don't think any movie or any book or any work of art can solve the stalemate in the Middle East today. But it's certainly worth a try.
I have never before, in my long and eclectic career, been gifted with such an abundance of natural beauty as I experienced filming 'War Horse' on Dartmoor.
