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With a movie you're creating from the beginning this particular work, let's not call it work of art, because very few movies are works of art, let's just call them bits of popular culture, whatever they are, sometimes very rarely by accident a movie becomes a work of art.

I didn't grow up thinking of movies as film, or art, but as movies, something to do on a Saturday afternoon.

You know, essentially when you do a play you're reinterpreting a work of art that already exists. That's not what happens with a movie.

And I taught acting for years, and without knowing it that was the real thing that started bending me toward directing.

But, I've made films in Japan, in Yugoslavia, all over Europe, all over the United States, Mexico, but not Hollywood.

By that I mean, I think that it is true that politics and political heroes have to satisfy our need to be greater than mortal in some way, and that's led them into creating illusions, sound bites, focus groups that tell you what to do.

Every single art form is involved in film, in a way.

Film is a collective experience, as you know.

I didn't believe that I'd ever be lucky enough to be able to make a living as an actor.

I don't know about liberal bias, but people of a liberal mentality are probably attracted in greater numbers to the arts than people of a conservative mentality.

I mean, certainly it's the single biggest event, I think, in terms of popular entertainment, or art even, if you say that, of the 20th Century. It's been film. It's the 20th Century's real art form.

I mean, certainly writing, painting, photography, dance, architecture, there is an aspect of almost every art form that is useful and that merges into film in some way.

I mean, I don't know anything else that I would try to do, but it's a very frustrating thing to do, because you are trying to take what's a fantasy in your head and make it live through the minds of 200 people.

I mean, movies are like your kids or your fingers and toes or something, it's pretty hard to pick favorites.

I mean, the truth of the matter is, I like the failures as much as I like the successes, it's only the world that doesn't like the failures.