“I hadn't made a big-budget film, and in Hollywood there's a sort of ma...” — Gus Van Sant Quote

“I hadn't made a big-budget film, and in Hollywood there's a sort of man and boys situation. You're a man, you make $80 million movies! As if it's harder to make an $80 million movie. Well, I guess businesswise it is because you have more executives to argue with.”

“My art teacher in junior high was a very out gay man and a mentor to me.”

“Usually, when I read something, I'm looking for the story first. And then, when I re-read it, I check every part of it to see whether every scene is necessary. You imagine yourself watching the movie, to see whether or not you're losing the through-line of the story.”

“I was once a shameless, full-time dope fiend.”

“I think that for the actors, the last thing that they want is a director that's not watching, a director that goes 'Okay, it sounded good to me,' and they were doing something else or preoccupied with something else because they were worried about the light changing.”

“Sometimes, the people who are helping you can drop the ball.”

“I would argue that the charter schools are really good at building programming and curriculum around the issues and the interests of the kids that they serve.”

“In the past, I used to argue with those who didn't share my views. I felt this incredible need to 'make my point.' Now I live my life and do my best to be an example of what seems right to me.”

“On a Chinese film you just give orders, no one questions you. Here, you have to convince people, you have to tell them why you want to do it a certain way, and they argue with you. Democracy.”

“I listen to heavy metal thanks to my son. When I argue with him on the kind of music he is listening to, he says, 'listen to it.' I listen and think well that is not so bad!”

“You could argue that 'Sweeney Todd' was romantic, if you looked closely at it, but it didn't impart that to its audiences. But it's large, and it's melodramatic, and it's a style I like to work in periodically.”

“I couldn't love a movie much more than 'Dazed and Confused.' I would argue that 'Dazed and Confused: The Series' would have been very much like 'Freaks and Geeks.' And that died a painful death because it was too good.”