I want to do movies that I'm proud of where my kids at some point can see and I can feel comfortable sitting there watching it with them. And just that move people. That make people feel a little bit better about themselves when they leave the theatre.

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.

I mean the trouble with some of the kind of relationship movies I've done is there's only so many ways you can shoot a conversation. I was really tired of talking heads.

A lot of times we're just sold these movies that are really cynically conceived and marketed and they just want you there opening weekend before everybody finds out it's not so good.

I just feel like with independent movies... they're really free to do whatever they want. They're not afraid to make a statement about anything and there's not a huge studio behind them making sure that everything is wholesome and politically correct and all that.

There's too much down time making movies. That leads to boredom. And that leads to trouble.

I grew up in Toronto and as long as I can remember as long as there was cable even those old cable boxes that were wired to the TV there have been Bollywood movies on Toronto TV.

There's definitely a large fan base for the 'Twilight' and 'Harry Potter' movies that need their next fix.

I think there's a vague sense out there that movies are becoming more and more unreal. I know I've felt it.

Making movies was more a reaction to not being chosen for sports. Other kids were out there playing at whatever I was off making something blow up and filming it or making a mould of my sister's head using alginating plaster.

I knew I had to get out of Boston and stop making movies there at least for one movie otherwise no one would ever consider me for a movie that took place south of Providence.

Not that it entirely matters: There is a perception that all actors make their movies. A lot of people assume you're responsible. George Clooney told me actors get all of the blame and all the credit.

With the CGI suddenly there's a thousand enemies instead of six - the army goes off into the horizon. You don't need that. The audience loses its relationship with the threat on the screen. That's something that's consistently happening and it makes these movies like video games and that's a soulless enterprise. It's all kinetics without emotion.

Bond is the longest-running franchise ever and there's a reason for that: they are action movies but they are also touched by current events without being political or too serious.

Now there are so many movies so many festivals and so many awards going on each judged with each other like your work is worse than others and that's not fair. How can you tell what's best and what's worst from these awards? We're talking about art.

In all the movies I'm in love with someone in my head. There's always love in a film somewhere. It doesn't matter even if it's an action movie.

There are a lot of movies I've done that come and go and don't really establish a growing fan base.

Well it was actually - I brought the idea of doing a documentary to HBO back in 2000 when there were some press reports sort of were bandied about that there were going to TV movies based on some of the books that were out.

Even if we die at 100 we're still dying young. I want at least 700 years. There's a lot of travelling and books to read and movies to see. I'm not going to squeeze it all in in 85 years.

There really are three types of 'religious' movies: the ones that make fun of it the ones that vilify it and the ones that literally preach to the converted.

There's an absolute prejudice that good movies are dramas and comedies are more dismissable. But I couldn't disagree more.

There's this index that tallies up how much your movies have made and if they haven't grossed a certain amount then you're not bankable. I know I'm not Will Smith but you know my ranking's pretty low. The only studio picture I've done is 'Zodiac ' and that didn't perform that well.

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.

When we shoot 24 there are so many things I have to worry about from the script to technical things to my performance that I don't have a second to be bored or take anything for granted. We produce 24 hours of film a season which is like making 12 movies.