There are moments in one's life where you look back and you say, 'Well, I wish I had done this differently.'
— Nicholas Meyer
Actors will change their face, will change their hair, will change their voice, will disappear into the role. A movie star doesn't disappear.
As a writer, you have control of the words you put on the page. But once that manuscript leaves your hand, you give control to the reader. As a director, you are limited by everything: weather, budget, and egos.
I was always a filmmaker before I was anything else. If I was always anything, I was a storyteller, and it never really made much of a difference to me what medium I worked in.
The first thing that put me on the map was my Sherlock Holmes novel.
Art doesn't just happen by accident. It is about pulling out new tricks and trying new things.
Schools and libraries are the twin cornerstones of a civilized society. Libraries are only good if people use them, like books only exist when someone reads them.
An actor is someone who pretends to be somebody else. A movie star is somebody who pretends that somebody else is them.
A screenplay is not a finished product; a novel is. A screenplay is a blueprint for something - for a building that will most likely never be built.
The director is a bit analogous to the conductor of a symphony orchestra. It's a collaborative adventure.
