When I'm Making A Film, I'm The

More Than Ninety Percent Of Directing A Picture Is The Right Casting

[action's] A Western Thing. We Think Of The Hero Going Into Battle, Rebelling Against A Government Or An Oppressor, But [in Kundun] Action Is Nonaction Or What Appears To Be Nonaction. That's A Hard Concept For Western Audiences. . . . We Wanted To Show A Kind Of Moral Action, A Spiritual Action, An Emotional Action. Some People Will Pick Up On It; Some Won't.

People Say You Should Do It This Way, Someone Else Suggests That, Yes, There's Financing, But Maybe You Should Use This Actor. And There Are The Threats, At The End - If You Don't Do It This Way, You'll Lose Your Box Office; If You Don't Do It That Way, You'll Never Get Financed Again... 35, 40 Years Of This, You Get Beat Up.

[kubrick] Was Unique In The Sense That With Each New Film He Redefined The Medium And Its Possibilities. But He Was More Than Just A Technical Innovator. Like All Visionaries, He Spoke The Truth. And No Matter How Comfortable We Think We Are With The Truth, It Always Comes As A Profound Shock When We're Forced To Meet It Face-to-face.

I Think There's Only One Or Two Films Where I've Had All The Financial Support I Needed. All The Rest, I Wish I'd Had The Money To Shoot Another Ten Days.