I work constantly but I work at a lot of different things. You know I run a theater company in New York I direct plays act in plays in movies so I try to keep it eclectic.

Well Toronto I consider to be the birthplace of my films. I've made three films and this is the third one to premiere here in the same theater on the same day at the same time - they are my audience. They're the people that I think about while I'm writing directing and editing. I specifically make movies for them.

I'm not Michael Moore. I think Michael Moore wants to tell you how to think. He wants to give you answers. I make movies to raise my own personal questions and not to give answers.

I think romance is a tool comedy is a tool and drama is a tool. I really just want to tell stories that challenge the viewer move people make you laugh perhaps push an idea about being open-minded but never settle on a genre or an opinion. I hate genre. I like movies that are original in their approach.

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 hate movies that tell people what to think. I'm proud that Democrats thought 'Thank You For Smoking' was their film and Republicans thought it was theirs. I'm proud that pro-choice people thought 'Juno' was their film and pro-life people thought it was theirs.

There certainly is no secret in that there are plenty of people who don't like plenty of my movies. Each one of my films is personal each one of my films is emotionally autobiographical. And I like directors who do that. With each one of my films I'm exploring one of my own issues and I try to expose myself a little in the film.

I'm trying to figure myself out through my movies. Whether it's big stuff like what we're doing here or little stuff like 'Why aren't I happier?' With every film I feel like I'm apologising for something. I feel I'm most successful when I'm looking for something that embarrasses me about my character that I'd like to expose.

There are only so many movies you can direct. And yet there are movies that I want to make sure make it to the screen in as honest a way as possible.

I want my movies to be audience experiences. As much as I like Michael Haneke I'm not going to make a Haneke film. That's just not in my DNA.

Being the son of a filmmaker you are aware of a career as a director. You don't think of it as just movies but as a life.

The best movies have one sentence that they're exploring a thesis something that people can argue about over dinner afterward.

There are movies where we are interested in seeing people's lives without agreeing with what they're doing.

Where I live nobody who's fourteen is having sex and doing major drugs. And I think if you see it in the movies you may be influenced by it. I think it's so important to preserve your innocence.

I can't watch scary movies right now because living on my own it kind of freaks me out.

I'm so grateful for what Disney gave me and the experiences that I got but at the end of the day I can do so much more than what I did on that channel and in those movies.

I always leave that for other people to decide because some of the things I consider to be disasters are some people's favorite movies. And that's what I like so much is that you never know. Something intrigues somebody and means nothing to somebody else.

I don't get it when you get so much openness about the way movies are made and the special effects and the behind-the-scenes stuff and all of that. I can't help but feel like this reduces it a little bit.

I like the idea of movies having a magic element. How many times have you seen an actor in a movie who you know only as the character? It's wonderful isn't it?

There are movies that require fantasy and slightly more fantastical acting. Lines that are good for certain movies in real life circumstances would be absolutely unbelievable things to really say and you would look at these people like they're freaks for conversing that way. But somehow for certain styles of movies it works and it seems fine.

In terms of the romantic kind of lead I just never enjoy those movies very much. Maybe they'll come to interest me more as I get older. I doubt it but maybe. Romantic comedies tend to be for me an oxymoron.

And being as I'm somebody who loves movies like The Machinist I also love going along to big mass entertainment movies. I get in the mood for all kinds of movies and so I like to try each of them.

It was like in Samoa when they'd put up a movie screen on the beach and show movies and the locals would run behind the sheet to see where the people went. It was pretty grim.