As I do with most films, I try and find some music that you could use throughout, not just a sampling of lots of different artists.

Even if you try to copy a film shot by shot, you still can't. It's still your own film.

I used to take photographs just to remember people.

For all the boredom the straight life brings, it's not too bad.

I was once a shameless, full-time dope fiend.

Now the music industry is sort of like a Craigslist venture, right? Where you're making your own records and selling them online.

I'm normally drawn to something I haven't done and seen before.

The area of teenage life is not necessarily rarefied; we've all gone through that period. It's not as rarefied as a western or a space adventure or a gangster film, but it has its own dynamic.

Sometimes getting upset with yourself is necessary when you face the truth.

Modern-day cinema takes the form of a sermon. You don't get to think, you only get to receive information.

I have my ideas of what a good documentary is, but drama is a different animal because you're arranging everything.

I believe in always being open to learning more through exploration of everything available and following one's sense of curiosity, creativity, and playfulness.

Some things I can never forget. I must not. Otherwise what do I have left?

Right now. Living. Aiming to misbehave or just trying not to fade away.

The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.

My background is in musical comedy.

I wanted to leave high school in 1958 and join the Cuban revolution. So the only reason I did not come to join [Fidel] Castro was because my mother would not let me. I was only 16.

I never thought I'd ever do a pirate bar, to be honest with you.

Music, when soft voices die Vibrates in the memory.

The grace of God is like insurance. It will help you in your time of need without any limit.

The deeps are cold: In that darkness camaraderie does not hold: Nothing touches but, clutching, devours.