Every college player thinks they're on their way. But, delusions aside, I might have toiled in the minor leagues for a bit.

I guess I don't have a grandiose view of the world in general, and I never believe it when someone else has a grandiose moment.

Maybe part of being a dad means that the slightest little thing will make me tear up.

It's disappointing to see films become pure entertainment, so that it's not an art form.

A lot of Luis Bunuel's later, European films are all great.

The film culture has no room for ideas. The literary culture has some room, but not less than they should, and the academic culture has a lot, but there's no way to communicate it in a wide way.

The worst thing is that you used to be able to show interesting films on campuses. Those places are all gone.

'Slacker' is so not about navel-gazing.

We filmmakers are control freaks. For us, it's about bending the elements of a story into existence.

Everybody just wants to appreciate time as it's passing, to be in the moment. It's the hardest thing to do. You're either in the unknown future that you're working toward, or you're in the past that becomes a little abstract.

There's a long history of people who spent that $300,000 on their first film and weren't quite ready, and then they never did it again 'cause they were out of synch with where they were, and they would never raise that money again.

Pro athletes, how they go through the world is so elevated. The bubble they're in is one of entitlement. And that starts young. By the time they're in college, they've had it a lot of their life.

I think I got really lucky with Slacker. That was a film that probably shouldn't have been seen.

I'm lucky that I get to jump around, do a big-budget comedy and then a smaller film. I don't even make a big distinction between them.

I think there are more films being made, but there are probably less outlets for them and distributors.

My working method has always been, 'Work really hard and get it right the first time.'

I think you get in trouble if you make experimental big studio films.

I'm a huge Nagisa Oshima fan. He was one of the most radical Japanese directors to come up in the '60s.

In interviews, I never wanted to play into the myth of, 'Yeah, I was sitting there doing nothing, and then made 'Slacker.'' No. I'd been making shorts, a Super-8 feature, and running a film society. I always try to stress to people that there's a lot of work involved and years of preparation. But no one wants to hear that part.

I want to make a film about a factory worker.

The human psyche creates structure. We all go through our lives like, 'Oh! And then I moved here.' We're pattern-seeking, structure-producing machines.

Hollywood has a way of sucking the world's talent to it.

I lost a year or two in there, trying to get films financed that I didn't know would never get financing.

Every film's different; every story is so different. But I think I've always been attracted to try to take something minimal and to maximize it cinematically. To find out if I can I really go all the way with one idea.