Growing up, movies were something my family and, later, my friends and I would stay up all night talking about. The movies I remember moved me and forced you to think about things that made you know yourself better.

The military has been actually remarkable at dealing with race, but gender is an issue.

There is no reason why challenging themes and engaging stories have to be mutually exclusive - in fact, each can fuel the other. As a filmmaker, I want to entertain people first and foremost. If out of that comes a greater awareness and understanding of a time or a circumstance, then the hope is that change can happen.

The issue of assault in the military is something that they've gone to great lengths to try to deal with - and have not entirely dealt with yet.

There is some humour in 'Family Values.' I don't want everyone to think it's not going to make them laugh. But there are quite a lot of poems there that aren't funny at all.

There's a difference between racism and people making a joke about something. There is true racism going on, and people should be able to identify what that is, comparatively.

I love a good romantic comedy.

The really funny moments you notice throughout your life are very seldom generated by one person telling a joke.