When I'm shooting a movie I'm always in an invisible theater seat. I respect the fact that people have worked hard all week and want to go to the movies on the weekend and be entertained.

Do you know what a blessing it is to make movies that make people happy?

Success is not something I've wrapped my brain around. If people go to those movies then yes that's true big-time success. If not it's much ado about nothing.

I want people to think about movies and how we watch them. Let them know it's okay to question the structure or how we're sometimes duped into a false sense of normalcy. Most of all I want people to question the old standard practices of 'This is how the structure of something should work ' or 'This is how a character must behave.'

I'm always happy when I hear about people selling records or selling books or selling movies. It makes me proud of them.

I think movies do play a valuable role in turning people on to the act of reading. I think that phenomenon just creates readers. At first they're going to love 'Harry Potter ' or they may love 'The Hunger Games ' but after that they're going to love the act of reading and wonder 'What else can I read?'

The perceived wisdom is that people do not go in large numbers to black-and-white movies anymore - which is a great shame but I'd love to make a black-and-white movie one day.

Well the thing about great fictional characters from literature and the reason that they're constantly turned into characters in movies is that they completely speak to what makes people human.

I do other sorts of things. I act in other people's movies. I direct operas. I write books.

Movies will end up being this esoteric art form where only singular people will put films out in a small group of theaters.

I've always had this idea that I wanted movies to make people better not worse.

I'm a spoilt brat. I thought I was just going to walk in and make movies. But I'd been my own boss for so long that all of a sudden to be facing a roomful of people who were niggling over every little scene... I just thought I'd go back and draw my comics and have a happy life.

I am so happy because I want more people to like martial arts movie not just martial arts audience. Even martial arts can be used in comedy in drama in horror movies in different kinds of movies.

I don't know any form of art or entertainment that can affect people the way movies can. I know it sounds ridiculous but they can change your world. They can change your views.

For a number of years I'd been around the kind of people who financed movies and the kind of people who are there to make the deals for movies. But I'd always had this naive idea that everybody wants to make movies as good as they can be which is stupid.

People go to movies on Saturday to get away from the war in Iraq and taxes and election news and pedophiles online and just go and have some fun. I like doing movies that are fun.

I've found that if you wear a beret people think you're either a cabdriver or a producer of dirty movies.

I cast unusual people in my movies.

People are always wondering if I am an artist or political activist or politician. Maybe I'll just clearly tell you: Whatever I do is not art. Let's say it is just objects or materials movies or writing but not art OK?

I think our culture has gotten so skewed. People assume that because you're an actor you want to write a book to exploit your celebrity but my celebrity is only a byproduct of me making movies. I have no intention of being a celebrity.

So I know how I watch movies which is on my laptop man. And that's how I suspect a lot of people do it.

People go to the movies to watch a film and all they're thinking about is the actress's cellulite they saw in a magazine.

One of the reasons why people - particularly young people - love action movies is because what they are really looking for is justice.

I'm fighting the label of 'Black' actress simply because it's very limiting in people's eyes especially people who are making movies.