There is little correlation between the circumstances of people’s lives and how happy they are
Once you see dance as a weapon - and everyone has a different weapon - it makes dance really interesting.
For someone like Daniel Radcliffe, it’s really fun to go against your image. He’s such a goody-two-shoes in Harry Potter. I just wanted him to throw off the gloves and be weird and quirky.
I just feel so lucky to tell stories and make up stories and share them with people.
I fell in love with that movie [Now You See Me]. I liked the actors. I thought it was an interesting world. When they called me with the opportunity to direct the next one, the first question I needed to address was, what are we going to do to make it different? How can I add something to the franchise? If I can't add anything, then there's no reason for me to do it.
I can't let fear kill my creative brain. Fear is the killer. Your bad choices come from fear. And I'm constantly combating fear. I'm one of the most fearful people, which may be why I'm so sensitive about it. I combat fear, constantly. So, when something like this happens, it only makes us stronger, but it reminds you that your strength is by being able to fight that stuff off and being okay with failure. If I get everything I wish and I get to make movies for the rest of my life, I'm going to have many failures and I need to be okay with that.
A director is what a director wants to be. If you want to force something, you can fight to the death and maybe get fired, but it's your job to help push things along.
Music is not my life. Christ is my life.
Nevertheless, no matter how much they killed themselves with work, no matter how much money they eked out, and no matter how many schemes they thought of, their guardian angels were asleep with fatigue while they put in coins and took them out trying to get just enough to live with.
I worked as hard to write the worst film of the year as I did to write the best film of the year.
I think one of the successes of Gladiator is how we manage to turn on a dime the character from one thing to another where you believe he is one thing and he is something very different.