I think violence cynicism brutality and fashion are the staples of our diet. I think in the grand history of story-telling going back to people sitting around fires the dark side of human nature has always been very important. Movies are part of that tradition.

Being non-commercial is never an ambition. Movies come together at different points for fortuitous reasons. You do them as you get the opportunity as opposed to doing them when you choose to or design to.

So much of it is the design of the shot or the motion of the character it's the work you do so that it has the same things that are in the movie. In just a few frames it's got to communicate something clearly and dramatically.

My biggest role as director on the film is keeping a sense of the overview - how to cast the movie and shoot it in such a way that it will cut together. And how to design the style and tone.

One of the best animated films I've seen come out of Disney was the Tarzan movie. I wasn't crazy about the story or the design on Tarzan's face but the traditional animation was spectacular.

I was a cartoonist when I was at university but I decided to go into movie making knowing that I could still draw by doing movies design work story boards and such.

Hitchcock had to fight to the death to make his movies.

I think that obviously there is a perverse attraction to a fundamentally changed world or the end of the world. There is a death wish a perverse death wish. Not just for ourselves not just for the movie 'Death Wish ' but for the end of all human life.

Movies like that aren't about the visual effects and explosions. They're human stories about family about life about death.

Even when you're making a movie about life death is a presence and I guess it's part of my dramatic viewpoint. I'm not sure why exactly.

Even when you're making a movie about life death is a presence and I guess it's part of my dramatic viewpoint. I'm not sure why exactly. Maybe I'm drawn to it as a story element.

My mom and dad - they were always there. They were always on the set. They focused on our family life. The entertainment business wasn't the end-all. They weren't out to get the next big paycheck or the next big movie. It was about 'What can we do as a family.'

I miss my Dad. My Dad loved cheesy monster movies so we'd have Godzilla movie marathons. Those are some of my favorite memories laughing at how the monster outfits were so bad like black garbage bags for heads.

Whenever I did a good performance my Dad and my uncles who were rabid movie fans took me to the movies. There began my underlying love affair with film.

My dad was born in Chicago in 1908... his parents came from Russia. They settled in Chicago where they lived in a little tiny grocery store with eight or nine children - in the backroom all together - and my grandmother got the idea to go into the movie business.

My dad had a movie theater so I was there every night.

In fact I had the idea because of Peter Falk. I saw my dad watching a Peter Falk movie and something clicked in my head. I gotta go make a movie for Peter Falk and me.

A lot of young filmmakers bring their movies to my dad because he always gives lots of good editing ideas and notes. He'd be a good film professor.

My dad's sense of humor was direct and sometimes surreal - his quick wit is well known amongst our family and friends. He raised me on Spike Jones records and W.C. Fields movies and his sense of humor fell somewhere in between.

My Dad hated his job. He sold overcoats but he wanted to make movies. He had a failed career working with the Ritz Brothers - they were like the Marx Brothers only a tier below. I always had a picture in my mind of him in a straw hat.

I'm the most inappropriate dad. I curse in front of my kids and their friends. I let my kids watch R-rated movies. I'll walk by the movie theater and say 'Let's go see that ' and my kids will say 'No it's rated R. It's not appropriate for kids.' I'm like Uncle Dad. We have fun. I don't live with them but I drive over four days a week.

My mom was a professional. My dad and mom met each other in a movie called 'New Faces of 1937.' My mom went under the name Thelma Leeds and she did a few movies and she was really a great singer and when she married my dad and started to have a family she sang at parties.

I always wanted to be a stay-at-home dad making art making movies.

And I love Mel Brooks. My Dad loved his movies too they're awesome the kind of thing that if you're in for ten minutes you're in for two hours.