"I've always been most interested in the politics of everyday life: your relation to whatever you're doing, or what your ambitions are, where you live, where you find yourself in the social hierarchy."

"I did The Newton Boys and during the whole process of making the film, I may have spent a week in Los Angeles."

"I lost a year or two in there, trying to get films financed that I didn't know would never get financing."

"I've never been a guy who had more than a toe in Hollywood anyway, so my toe is more easily lopped off than most."

"Well, you have to keep your faith in the fact that there are a lot of intelligent people who are actively looking for something interesting, people who have been disappointed so many times."

"I worked offshore as an oil worker for a couple of years."

"Something about Texas I'm not proud of is that our state murdered 37 people last year alone."

"I do find myself at the moment, due to the success of School of Rock, to be on people's radar a little."

"Everyone is encouraged to see their lives, the world through the eyes of the rich."

"The truth will only be told over a career."

"I want to make a film about a factory worker."

"I think there are more films being made, but there are probably less outlets for them and distributors."

"Yes, but Hollywood is the strangest place in that they'll torpedo their own film to prove an emotional point."

"Before Sunrise did very well internationally. It made as much in Italy and Korea as it did here."

"Whatever story you want to tell, tell it at the right size."

"Hollywood has a way of sucking the world's talent to it."

"I think I got really lucky with Slacker. That was a film that probably shouldn't have been seen."

"I always sensed instinctively from the earliest age that I was being lied to."

"It's disappointing to see films become pure entertainment, so that it's not an art form."

"It's luck that one thing works out and one doesn't, it's sort of happenstance."

"I think you get in trouble if you make experimental big studio films."

"I've always liked the minds of criminals, they seem similar to artists."