Larry Kasdan has made some of my favorite movies of all time so just to be working with him was a pleasure. Now that I have, I not only respect his work but I just love and respect him as a person.

How many movies do you see when you can say this director really knew what film he wanted to make? I can count them on the fingers of one hand.

I have three kids who like Harry Potter so I was sort of aware of it. You can't really move from it: it's on buses, in stores, it's everywhere. One of my kids has read the books; the other two are too small but they like the movies.

Making movies is just like betting on horses at the racetrack.

I watch and listen to movies today and am shocked by the way actors deliver their lines. Everybody mumbles now and I don't understand why.

It's an end of the world I guess. I guess you'd currently call it disaster movie. But really they weren't disaster movies. They were more end of the world movies. This is more an end of the world movie.

I think independent movies are actually very challenging right now, because it was this huge scene and it was great for a few years. Then, it was totally co-opted by the studios. Now, it's become very corporate, the independent scene.

I think you should make more movies, more musicals. I think the public deserves that. I think this country deserves to be able to get out and foster that talent. Give them an opportunity to become stars. I think the whole idea is wonderful.

We were a Western civilisation, an English speaking civilisation, both NZ and Australia, and we had all these influences coming from both Great Britain and America to us; sending us their culture in the shape and form of movies and television.

Making movies is eating candy. It's a very expensive candy, so you value when you can do it. So when you can do it twice at once, it's like, you know, a kid in a candy store!

I tried so hard with movies like Vertigo and Middle of the Night and others. I felt those would show me that it's only a matter of time before I'd find the right one to reach out and touch people.

Years and years ago, when everyone knew that Pierce was going to be doing the job, they started selecting new people. I had this bizarre thing when I hadn't done many movies, and of going on for an interview.

I make two movies a year to take care of the butcher and the baker and the school fees. Then I try to write, but it's not that easy. Acting is what's easy.

I don't like to watch my own movies - I fall asleep in my own movies.

I think that's what distinguishes Schmidt, really. In the movies now, so much of what is appealing to an audience is the dramatic or has to do with science fiction, and Schmidt is simply human. There's no melodrama; there's no device, It's just about a human being.