I like to think the movies that I've picked have something worthwhile to say. Something relevant.

People wrestle sometimes making movies and I think that conflict is a very essential thing. I think a lot of very happy productions have produced a lot of very banal movies.

Yeah I mean the material directors the other cast and if you think you can do something with the character then you do it and go from there. I am looking forward to doing some smaller movies.

I'm glad movies aren't going to please everybody they can't. But what they have to be is recognisable. I don't equate myself with a master painter but I think you can recognise my films.

There are a lot of things that come to bear on movies now that I don't think are good for movies. They're trying to appeal to the biggest demographic and when they do that you sometimes flatten out.

I'm proud of all the movies I've made. They're not sequels they're not franchises. And the reason I pick my films carefully is that I don't want to spit on my life. I like to think of myself as more than that.

I actually think I have an audience member's sensibility about going to the movies.

I haven't deliberately set out to play the blonde bombshell in my movies. In fact it's probably been quite the opposite. After the success of The Mask I wasn't offered all that many blonde bombshell parts to be honest. I think people believed from the beginning that I could actually walk and talk at the same time.

I care about the connection with the audience. Film is such a powerful medium. Movies can change the way people think.

I don't want to just do independent movies and I don't want to just do adventure films. I enjoy both and I think both are cogent.

Sundance is weird. The movies are weird - you actually have to think about them when you watch them.

I don't make movies thinking: 'Oh this is going to be a huge box-office hit.'

Critics can be harsh and I think it's going to take me a long time to make people see what I have inside of me and that I really put my guts into movies and that I'm not superficial and that I'm not just a pretty face.

I like action movies even though I think action movies are kind of derided now. But there is something extraordinary about action movies which is absolutely linked to the invention of cinema and what cinema is and why we love it.

I just think old old movies they make you concentrate and pay attention so much more. They feel so warm. A lot of modern digital videotape it's just too bright. Don't know why it's not warm.

I'm an actor. And I guess I've done so many movies I've achieved some high visibility. But a star? I guess I still think of myself as kind of a worker ant.

Well I think one of the main things that you have to think about when acting in the movies is to try not to make the acting show.

I think I took my eye off the ball. From about 2005 2006 2007 I was out of it. I thought I could oversee movies and have it done for me so to speak.

Listen I think movies serve many different purposes from those movies that are frivolous and just an entertainment to movies that just go to exploring the complexities of the human soul. Everything is valid if it's done with honesty and dignity and I actually do both of those types of movies in my career.

I think ever since I was preteen I wanted to direct movies and tell stories.

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.