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I'm sure there have been missed opportunities, with films I've turned down that went on to be successful, but everyone in the industry has had that happen.

I was slightly disheartened when three of my films didn't work at the box-office. But the silver lining is that people did appreciate my work in those films. Had my performance gone unnoticed, I would've been in big trouble then.

We make films that we ourselves would want to see and then hope that other people would want to see it. If you try to analyze audiences or think there's some sophisticated recipe for success, then I think you are doomed. You're making it too complicated.

There are a lot of things that come to bear on movies now that I don't think are good for movies. They're trying to appeal to the biggest demographic and, when they do that, you sometimes flatten out.

My own personal taste in films as a member of the audience was not completely in line with films I was doing.

One can never anticipate how audiences will respond. One of the lessons that I've learned over the years is to that no matter what my feeling or opinion might be about a given film, once you give it to the audience, they own it.

If my film does not do well, it really hurts me. But by God's grace, even if some of my films may not have done well, people have still liked my work in it.

And as a filmmaker, I'm trying to unhook myself from this idea that unless you have a brilliant, long, enormously lucrative theatrical run, that your movie somehow failed. And I don't believe that.

If you're sitting in the audience, you probably can't see the preparation and work that goes into creating a great scene or a great part, but I can assure you that a good film depends on lot of different things falling perfectly into place.

I was never interested in film. Never. I never even thought of it. I wasn't even a film buff, I didn't see many films ever.