I make dark dramas, movies about people living in desperate fear who then overcome that fear and find a heroic side to themselves.

Julia Roberts and Sandra Bullock do romantic comedies. I do dark dramas. I do these movies well.

The world is littered with movies about people that are depressed that either did not come out or are not successful.

If I make two movies my entire life, and they're two movies that - whether they make a lot of money or two people go to see them - they speak of me, then I consider them incredibly successful. I don't need to be Steven Spielberg.

And you didn't headline movies at 20. You were able to have a career that built little by little by little. It wasn't just like, OK, throw them up there, make them a superstar, pay them $10 million a movie and then watch them self-destruct and you don't care because all you need is the three years [of fame]. It was just a different set of rules.

It's an interesting combination: Having a great fear of being alone, and having a desperate need for solitude and the solitary experience. That's always been a tug of war for me.