You hear again and again that audiences want to see movies that are different and critics say we [directors] make the same thing again and again in Hollywood, then you go and make something different and you get kicked in the gut for it.
You don't want to get too far ahead of the audience and you don't want the audience to be ahead of you. So, that balance is difficult and it takes a lot of work and tuning in the edit, to get the right balance.
I think a good director can embrace any genre and it's the kind of thing where you always want to do something different. You always want to challenge yourself.
If you want to know somebody, fight 'em. Have a fistfight with them.
The movie has to be going somewhere. Other than that, you want it to be entertaining, but people usually disagree on what entertaining is and everybody has different tastes.
Actors are insanely competitive and they hold back on each other. They are like magicians and none of them want to show their tricks.
[If] you want to learn something about somebody, get into a fistfight. You'll learn more in five minutes than you will in five weeks of conversations. It's basic.