I guess all my films are about resolving conflicts - and they're all love stories. If they weren't, I couldn't make them.

Even if it's a thriller or a comedy, it's always a love story for me, and that's what I concentrate on, because the love stories are my surrogates for the argument: two people in conflict that see life differently.

When you rehearse a play, you spend four weeks with one goal in mind - to wean the actor away from you. You want the actor to become completely independent and to understand all the emotional and psychological moves within the character.

It's my job to motivate the audience to believe. I have to get them to suspend their judgment in favor of involvement.

I have never had a man give me money. I've always been the provider. I have always been the one who went out and earned, and I've never felt unequal in that way.

With acting, it wouldn't be about money: it would be about taking my life experiences and using them to create art.

I was never stupid with my money, because I grew up without it. So when I started to make some, I was like, 'Okay, first rule of thumb, I'm not buying it unless I've got the money to buy it,' so I have no debt.

A guy's who has all the money he needs and never faced any hard times, he won't have any character. But when you've had it tough and you've had it rough and you thought you were at the end of the rope and you work your way out of it, that's the way you build character.