I try to live my life where I end up at a point where I have no regrets. So I try to choose the road that I have the most passion on because then you can never really blame yourself for making the wrong choices. You can always say you're following your passion.
I'm Godless. I've had to make my God, and my God is narrative filmmaking.
Casting ethnic characters is a very hard thing to do, but it's important. It's also interesting.
Comic books and graphic novels are a great medium. It's incredibly underused.
When I go to movies I generally want to be taken to another world.
I grew up in a family with two very strong women, my mother and my older sister, and they were big influences on my life. I've spent a life loving women, and studying them as much as I can, or am allowed to.
As filmmakers, we can show where a person's mind goes, as opposed to theater, which is more to sit back and watch it.
To me, watching a movie is like going to an amusement park. My worst fear is making a film that people don't think is a good ride.
I think it's my nature to try and make original content, and that's what I've done, is just try and approach things in an original way, and do things differently.
I spent about a year and a half doing technical post work on 'The Fountain'. Although I do like the process, I think my favorite part of filmmaking is the actors.
There's always been a lot of pressure and tension on the line. If 'Pi' didn't work out, I have no idea what my career would be. I don't think I would have gotten another shot at it. If 'Requiem for a Dream' didn't work out, they would have called me a 'one-hit wonder with a sophomore slump'.
I've spent a life loving women and studying them as much as I can, or am allowed to.
I was a TV junkie as a kid. I am the Sesame Street generation.
You hear stories about directors using manipulation to get actors to do certain things, but I think when you're working with professional actors, it's all about trust. They can do anything you want, it's just a matter of them understanding what you're looking for, and the reason why.
I had some big ups and downs when I was in my 20s and the one thing I learned was, no matter how low it gets, something good will come along - something always comes out of that dark period.
I think it's important as a filmmaker, as any person working in the arts, that you've got to try new stuff and challenge yourself and take chances.
I couldn't sleep one night and I was sitting in my office and I realized that I was an independent filmmaker.
At the end of Requiem all I wanted to do was get a DV camera and just do a small film. But then the hunger comes back.
I've always wanted to introduce hip-hop filmmaking to film. There's hip-hop art, dance, music, but there really isn't hip-hop film. So I was trying to do that.
Turning 30 was when my parents both got cancer and were fighting it and beat it, but their mortality started to get to me. Everything wasn't as hunky-dory like it was.
