Being Independent... Is Being Innovative Out Of

Basically, You Make Another Movie, And Another, And Hopefully You Feel Good About Every Picture You Make. And You Say, 'my Name Is On That. I Did That. It's Ok.' But Don't Get Me Wrong, I Still Get Excited By It All. That, I Hope, Will Never Disappear.

The Five Points Was The Toughest Street Corner In The World. That's How It Was Known. In Fact, Charles Dickens Visited It In The 1850s And He Said It Was Worse Than Anything He'd Seen In The East End Of London.

What The Dalai Lama Had To Resolve Was Whether To Stay In Tibet Or Leave. He Wanted To Stay, But Staying Would Have Meant The Total Destruction Of Tibet, Because He Would Have Died And That Would Have Ripped The Heart Out Of His People.

The Creation Of The Island, Or The Impression Of The Island, As It Changes In The Mind Of The Character Also Came In To Play... There Was Another Very Important Collaborator, Rob Legato, On Special Visual Effects. And Then Ultimately There's Thelma Schoonmaker, Who Keeps Me Focused During The Editing Of The Picture.

Cinema Is A Matter Of What's In The Frame And What's Out.