Well the thing about great fictional characters from literature and the reason that they're constantly turned into characters in movies is that they completely speak to what makes people human.

The first two movies I directed failed when I was 21 and 23 and that was the greatest thing that could have happened.

American movies are often very good at mining those great underlying myths that make films robustly travel across class age gender culture.

When I was a kid I had two great guilty pleasures. One was horror movies and the other was martial arts movies.

I'm a big kid I'm a kid at heart so I still love the classic family films such as the great Warner Bros film 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory' - not the remake but the original. It's still one of the best movies hands down ever made and of course that goes back to the ingenuity of the characters and the storyline.

Luis Bunuel made great movies.

Frank is such a great visual storyteller that if you study his artwork you see that his Sin City books are already the best movies never seen on the big screen.

It's so great in Hollywood now. You have people past 40 sitting and talking about serious stuff writing and making movies and TV but there's laser pistols and superheroes and alien monsters involved. It's viable and mainstream.

When I meet gay fans out and about they're so great to talk to - and I'm big on hugging because I'm from the Midwest. They're just so energetic and loving. I'm proud to have those fans and their support means a lot to me. I don't want just girls coming to my movies I want guys to come too!

I'm a sci-fi girl. If I can have anything in life I'd want tons of great science-fiction movies and stories. It's so progressive beautiful and imaginative.

I really like Gwyneth Paltrow a lot as far as her career because I think she's done a lot of small movies but she's also done great big movies and she's a really great actress.

Shooting this one was kind of like a two month party we would literally play music between takes and other movies that were shooting on our lot would play hookey come over and hang out and stuff. We had a great time.

You know when Hollywood does a great big blockbuster that really wraps you up in a world and lets you believe in extraordinary things that move you in some way in an almost operatic sensibility? That to me is the most fun I have at the movies.

Awards were made in Hollywood in whatever the time it was created. They're to promote each other's movies. You give me an award I give you an award and people will believe that we are great movies and they'll go to see them. It's still the same.

I don't think we're living in great times for movies to tell you the truth.

The thing about the UK is we don't really make that many great movies.

And if people come up and say they like the movies you're in it's a great compliment.

I grew up when I was 15 when I had my first opportunity in movies. I watched every great movie for a year and a half and since then I've asked myself how I can emulate such artistry. That's really my motivation. I want to do something as good as my heroes have done.

I'm an enormous admirer of Christopher Lee. He's somebody along with Vincent Price who I celebrate and I wanted my movies to show that celebration and that honoring of these great film stars that were unafraid to go into horror and Grand Guignol and the macabre.

I've had such a great track record in making a huge profit when the movies are smaller.

When people ask me what makes movies great it's the material.

As far as writing I like watching bad movies. Nothing stops me in my tracks more than watching a great film like 'The Godfather' or 'Dog Day Afternoon' or 'The Graduate.' You watch one of those and you never want to write again. Whereas with bad movies it makes you think If that counts I certainly could write.

I'm not going to have a perfect career. It's better to be Billy Wilder and make lots of movies and have five or six great ones than to make so few movies that when you make a bad one it crushes you.

I like the George Romero films which were really great social satire movies really twisted.