“People used to be funny about approaching me, but now they seem to think I'm as sane as anyone who's done what I've done in movies can be.”

“I don't make movies thinking: 'Oh, this is going to be a huge box-office hit.'”

“At the time I came along, Hollywood's idea of teen movies meant there had to be a lot of nudity, usually involving boys in pursuit of sex, and pretty gross overall. Either that or a horror movie. And the last thing Hollywood wanted in their teen movies was teenagers!”

“I remember saying goodbye to my father the night he left to join the Navy. He didn't have to. He was older than other servicemen and had a family to support but he wanted to be a part of the fight against fascism, not just make movies about it. I admired this about him.”

“If you're not a real chameleon of an actor and if you're not one of those guys who can really shape-change themselves all the time, one of the ways to keep pushing yourself and keep changing is to be in different kinds of movies.”

“On movies, you have a lot of stylists that get things too pretty. Everything gets steamed and ironed. It's just not the way we really behave.”

“Movies are open doors, and at every door, I change character and life.”

“Movies are not about the weekend that they're released, and in the grand scheme of things, that's probably the most unimportant time of a film's life.”

“If there's specific resistance to women making movies, I just choose to ignore that as an obstacle for two reasons: I can't change my gender, and I refuse to stop making movies.”