What is a movie star? It is an illusion. It was everything I ever wanted to be but it became a kind of shell non? It was what made me famous and got me women. But it wasn't real.

If somebody for some reason for music or for movie becomes famous it's because they have something something special.

I hear the way people talk about the children of famous people. They're not treated very well. The presumptions are usually quite awful. So I tried to establish myself with a couple of movies. After 'Juno' I thought: 'I think I've defined myself enough as my own director that I'd love to work with my father.'

I have a great job writing for 'The Office ' but really all television writers do is dream of one day writing movies. I'll put it this way: At the Oscars the most famous person in the room is like Angelina Jolie. At the Emmys the huge exciting celebrity is Bethenny Frankel. You get what I mean.

I would have been very happy just working from job to job paying my rent one movie at a time. I never wanted to be this famous. I never imagined this life for myself.

I like being in kids' movies and I like being in family movies.

I remember saying goodbye to my father the night he left to join the Navy. He didn't have to. He was older than other servicemen and had a family to support but he wanted to be a part of the fight against fascism not just make movies about it. I admired this about him.

The summer before I went to culinary school my family wanted me to take a job on a movie to make sure that I was making the right decision. I think they hoped I would change my mind about culinary school.

I've always wanted to get into acting ever since I was younger. I'd put on shows for my family and run around play dress-up all the time. I think I was 4 when I told them I wanted to do movies.

I'm not sure why no one wants to admit there's a viable audience out there that believes in God and wants to see a movie with their family. The demand is there. The supply is not.

I've always wanted to do a family movie.

They needed someone to write a script of The Great Gatsby very quickly for the movie they were making. I took this job so I'd be sure to have some dough to support my family.

I think the family movie is very important to everybody right now.

My family and our neighbors and friends thought of Africa and its Africans as extensions of the stereotyped characters that we saw in movies and on television in films such as 'Tarzan' and in programs such as 'Ramar of the Jungle' and 'Sheena Queen of the Jungle.'

Thinking back to those earlier days I felt I was weak when I wasn't making movies and then when I was I thought I was weak as a family member.

I can't tell you how scary it can be walking onto a movie and suddenly joining this family it's like going to somebody else's Christmas dinner everyone knows everyone and you're there and you're not quite sure what you're supposed to be doing.

It's very important that every movie I do makes money because I want the people that had the faith in me to get their money back.

There comes a point in your moviegoing life where you look at the screen and then you look at the world and you ask 'What is going on?' You want the movies to show you the chaos and mess and risk and failure that are normal for a lot of us. Generally the movies hide all of that.

I mean I love L.A. - I love living here. But I wish that we could make things without the need to hit a home run every single time. It's a unique thing to Hollywood that if you don't do that every time then you're considered a failure. But it's like 'Well are you making movies to be successful? Or are you making movies to learn something?'

Whether in success or in failure I'm proud of every single movie I've ever directed.

In Torch Song I did that character almost non-stop from 1978 until I made the movie in 1987. Then I had some failure which also colors how you react to doing other things.

I love music and after my first experience with movies I can't wait to do more.

You ask any moviemaker what their favorite movie experience was and they'll say it was one of the first ones where everyone had to pitch in and do everything together and you had to struggle.

If you're working on a movie you want it to be projected on the largest tapestry possible and the sound to be perfect and for that kind of communal experience of the movies to take place for it.