But, number one, I think traditional noir doesn't work in contemporary storytelling because we don't live in that world anymore

And I always had this idea for making a movie about a femme fatale, because I like these characters. They're a lot of fun, they're sexy, they're manipulative, they're dangerous.

You know, I listen to contemporary music all the time

However, ironically, I was baptized Presbyterian, and went to a Quaker school for twelve years

However, I spent most of my time in a Quaker school.

The camera lies all the time; lies 24 times/second.

I'm always looking for a kind of new musical entity to sort of move into a motion picture venue

I sometimes go for the strongest, most vivid colour on the palette, which in the case of movies is violence.

It's always great to discover a new star of tomorrow

So I like to try to go back and develop pure visual storytelling. Because to me, it's one of the most exciting aspects of making movies and almost a lost art at this point

The biggest mistake in student films is that they are usually cast so badly, with friends and people the directors know. Actually you can cover a lot of bad direction with good acting

Drink, ” he commanded, seeing the look of hunger, of passion, in the boy’s eyes. The intensity of his blood had awoken the predatory fire that lay within all men.

I am a humanist, which means, in part, that I have tried to behave decently without expectations of rewards or punishments after I am dead.

You should not think on a small scale

The universe is filled with the evidence of God's greatness. In awesome wonder we can consider the worlds He has made.

So, after school, I needed to learn a trade and started to work as a tailor.

My father is an economist who specialized in foreign food policy, and my mother worked for AID, a branch of the State Department, so food in regards to world affairs was talked about a lot.

The south-wind strengthens to a gale, / Across the moon the clouds fly fast, / The house is smitten as with a flail, / The chimney shudders to the blast.

For life to be meaningful, you must have a challenge.

Everything in art is but a copy of nature.

A people that loves freedom will in the end be free.