I came in on this movie after there had been a director and I came in after Tom Courtenay had talked to Ron Harwood about making a movie. So, you know Tom and Albert Finney had been friends since the beginning of their career as they became stars around the same time - Tom always reminds me that Albert was first with Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and then Tom with The Long Distance Runner.
I've been obsessed with making movies since I was 15. I watched a lot of movies when I was young, and I decided that I wanted to do that because I was a passionate kid about watching movies.
I think I'm a very American director, but I probably should have been making movies somewhere around 1976. I never left the mainstream of American movies; the American mainstream left me.
My filmmaking background has really just been making movies with my friends since I was 12 years old. That's how I feel I learned how to tell a story visually, by just going out with a video camera and making movies with my friends and family.
I've been making movies for a long time. The Japanese way of making movies has become second nature to me. To get away from that, I really try to surround myself with younger staff and approach making movies not like a veteran of the industry but always as a beginner and a rookie.
My signature dish - something I've been making since I was 10 - is angel hair pasta with shrimp and feta in a white-wine basil sauce with tomatoes, because it's absolutely amazing.
You don't need Tom Wolfe to tell you that the Buckhead section of Atlanta is the jewel of the city, an area of gracious homes, elegant hotels and shopping centers, as well as some of the best restaurants.
My favorite to cook is this recipe I've been making since I was 12 years old with my mom, and it's an angel hair shrimp pasta with tomatoes, feta, garlic, white wine - it's so easy but so fresh and so delicious!
I looked at an angel today, but the angel could not see me. The angel was more amazing than beautiful, like the best forgotten dream.
In all honesty I think that I've had a very normal life, even though I've been making movies since I was 9.
I believe in the Bible and I try to follow the Bible. I know I'm an imperfect person … I'm not making myself an angel because I'm not an angel and I'm not a devil either. I try to be the best I can and I try to do what I think is right.
Since I've been in the Senate, is that my work with people like Tom Coburn on opening up transparency in government, making sure that every dollar the federal government spends that's out there - that that's all posted on a searchable database on the Internet.
One thing we haven't mentioned is something everyone should understand very clearly. Look at the budget that was invested in 'Avatar': who in China has that kind of money to spend on making a movie? So we as Chinese filmmakers should work together to make Chinese movies that can compete as best we can for Chinese audiences, not make lousy movies, but make the best we can for that audience. Concentrate the money, the talent we have on making good movies [for China].
Since I was younger I've been making the best out of nothing.
I'm not only my spirit buy my body, and who can decide how much I, my individual self, am conditioned by the accident of my body? Would Byron have been Byron but for his club foot, or Dostoyevsky Dostoyevsky without his epilepsy?
I'm always open. I try not to have a closed mind. In fact the only reason why I'm able to continue to make films since 1986 is I have been adaptable. If I weren't flexible I sure wouldn't be making films this many years as I've been doing it. I've been making a film a year almost since 1986 and that's hard. That ain't easy.