I think the most experimental way to a film is to tell the story the traditional way, because everyone is doing the other thing.

In my work I think what drives me is perfection. I'm a chronically unsatisfied guy.

When I think about growing up, I feel most affected by two travels that I made working in cargo boats when I was 16 and 18. One of them crossed through the Mississippi and Baton Rouge and Mobile, Alabama, and another went all the way to Europe.

I think Kurosawa was one of the first storytelling geniuses who began to change the narrative structure of films.

I think Jenny Beavan is a masterful costume designer and very deserving of the Oscar for 'Mad Max: Fury Road.'

For me, it is especially important to maintain my interior life. My spirituality, my connectedness. That is the way I think. That is the way I deal with life and tough moments. I keep in touch with something bigger than me. And I connect with people who have an interior life - a connection with something bigger than them.