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I do my best not to have any expectations when I go into a movie because it's not fair.

When you see a finished film, it's very rare that it exceeds your expectations.

I don't know what to expect out of my films. My first two films were with extremely talented directors, and they didn't work. And my next two films were with newcomers, and they worked well. So I've stopped expecting anything from my movies.

I think my expectations for myself are much more severe and much more direct. You can't work on a film for six years without being your own toughest critic. So you can't really be distracted by the expectations based on your previous performance.

If you're expecting an intellectual film, then you will be disappointed.

Audiences don't ever disappoint me, in the sense that movies I feel really good about, they usually feel really good about too.

I just like surprising people. I never want to get to a place where people see that I am in a movie and they go see the movie and they expect a certain performance one way or the other. That is just inherently boring to me.

When you make a film like this, you must have the highest expectations of your audience. Having worked in situations where we have the lowest expectations of our audience.

When my films don't do well, I'm hurt and surprised. It's discouraging.