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Unless you have a real passion for making movies, then don't bother. I had to carry energy and light into every meeting, only to be told, 'We don't want you.' I couldn't take it personally. You just have to wait, and live for those moments when the casting director likes you.

It's weird: making a movie is like life compacted into three months. You have these very intense relationships with people, and you talk to them every day - your editor, the casting people, music people, your actors - then it ends. It's like a circus life.

Making a movie is like an accelerated version of growing up with someone. You spend so many hours a day with each other, and you're putting your heart into this same effort.

When you start a movie, it's not like other kinds of work that you have when you know your boss for years or colleagues for years. You're meeting everyone, mostly, for the first time. You have to get comfortable with those people so you can perform, because the first thing that is going to shut you down is any kind of anxiety.

I don't really like those sorts of actresses who say, 'I don't want to make that movie,' but they make the movie. They just spend their time not liking being on a set and I just think it's absurd, because we are so lucky to do this job. When you accept to make a movie, just make the movie. And then it's more easy for relationships.

Making movies is not rocket science. It's about relationships and communication and strangers coming together to see if they can get along harmoniously, productively, and creatively. That's a challenge. When it works, it's fantastic and will lift you up. When it doesn't work, it's almost just as fascinating.

Film is my big problem. I am involved too much. I love too much. I've been trying to resolve it for 35 years now, but for now, I have to keep making them.

A film is not something that can be made over the phone or Skype. Creative people meet, spend time together, and then come up with something.

When you're making a film, you become incredibly close. It's not like you're filing away papers all day. You're creating with human emotions, so you do become very connected, so it is familial and romantic.

You get to a point where you have to start planning, when you cross that line where you have enough value to get someone's movie made if you attach yourself to it, you have to be very thoughtful and have to plan. When you're starting out, you're willing to do anything.