I feel a little schizophrenic because my life is so totally different from here, obviously. And the French values are so different from American values.
To put the point sharply: If an informer in the French underground who sent a friend to the torture chambers of the Gestapo was equally a victim, then there can be no right or wrong in life that I understand.
I can only say that in life when you have the greatest expectations and you try to do things the right way, it doesn't always work out.
I grew up with a sister I was very close with and a mom who was a powerful influence on my life. I was always close with women.
I never want readers to be comfortable, to feel like we're in a comedy or a drama. Life is never just one of those things. Life is a balance of all those things.
I think for anyone who follows the 'artistic life,' a certain amount of selfishness and self-involvement is part of the package. You're probably already disregarding a certain material life you could have.
It's rare to find women who have that balance between work and life, who are really psyched for another woman's success.
Samurai culture did exist really, for hundreds of years and the notion of people trying to create some sort of a moral code, the idea that there existed certain behaviors that could be celebrated and that could be operative in a life.
Generally, I've never known quite how to fit in in civilian life, but on set, making a film, I know exactly where to go, how to behave and how I fit.
When my father arrived in Kenya, he had found the Kikuyu way of life similar to that of the British at the time the Romans invaded England 2,000 years ago.
Basically, the intersection between the animal world and the plant world is where life regenerates itself over and over, billions of times each day. It's the foundation of life on our planet.
One of my life philosophies is that you have a choice to make when you're doing something creative. You can be cheesy... or you can be lame.
I'm not making films for middle aged journalists, who are mostly men. I make films that hopefully entertain people, where they can learn something about life.
When you're a writer, you pull your life into your work. My first love is cinema. That's where I want to be judged.
Cop shows are by definition melodramatic; they're larger than life. They create very stark contrasts and conflicts emotionally. They're provocative, assuming they grapple with - to the extent that cop shows are mirrors of the culture.
At school, I decided I wanted to be a director and then I went out and spent the rest of my adult life trying to be a director. It was really clear to me. So in that sense I was very lucky.
If you're going to spend two or three years of your life working on something, you've got to be making the kind of movie that discusses and influences the culture and is engaged in the world you're living in.
When you have a movie about people landing from planet Neptune, you suspend disbelief. I totally get it. But I like doing things that happen in real life.
It's kind of major, learning to drive. I feel like it kicked up other stuff in my life.
I read 'Red Dragon' back in high school. I love Thomas Harris' approach to the crime thriller that crossed over into horror in a way that nobody really tapped into.
I've watched 'Being There' over 50 times, and every time I watch it, I love every frame. I just wish I had directed it myself.
