I think Anna and the King is a look at Asia from the Asian perspective, reflecting the Asian experience, which is very rare.

I want to be inspiring to myself, to my kids, my family, and my friends.

The best reason to make a film is that you feel passionately about it.

So, yes, there’s nothing I love more than listening to directors talk about their movies.

I didn’t have any ambition to produce big mainstream popcorn movies.

I guess I’ve played a lot of victims, but that’s what a lot of the history of women is about.

I have, in some ways, saved characters that have been marginalized by society by playing them – and having them still have dignity and still survive, still get through it.

I don’t know why people think child actresses in particular are screwed up. I see kids everywhere who are totally bored. I’ve never been bored a day in my life.

I think an artist’s responsibility is more complex than people realize.

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

I had to take my makeup off at work every night. I wasn’t allowed to do it at home because my mom said that when your work day is done, you’re done with work.

I think anybody over 30 plays parents because it happens in your thirties and so that’s kind of a natural progression. But I’m definitely drawn to it. It’s probably the most intense, passionate thing that happens to you as you get older.

I think ‘destiny’ is just a fancy word for a psychological pattern.

But the reason I became, why I wanted to be in the business was because there was Midnight Cowboy.

I don’t know if I see myself as really an action hero, but I like doing physical movies and I like doing movies where the writing is very lean.

I think Anna and the King is a look at Asia from the Asian perspective, reflecting the Asian experience, which is very rare.

By the first week of shooting, you know exactly where your film is heading based on the psychology of your director.

I wish that I spoke more languages. I speak a couple languages, but not well enough to really dub myself. French is really the only one, and it’s a difficult thing.

I’m kind of a chatterbox and I talk really fast.

You develop a third eye where you kind of know where they are in a room at all times but no matter how vigilant you are as a parent, at some point, you’ll look around a room and can’t find them and there’s a searing pain that goes through your body.

I am the luckiest filmmaker I know.

But now I really don’t want to work unless I really, really care about a project.

Normal is not something to aspire to, it’s something to get away from.

Cruelty might be very human, and it might be cultural, but it’s not acceptable.

I fantasize about having a manual job where I can come home at night, read a book and not feel responsible for what will happen the next day.

I love European movies and I kind of grew up on European films.

I love more than anything looking at a movie scene by scene and seeing the intention behind it.

The movies I made when I was 14 or 15, I have a hard time looking at those. Those were the awkward years. I don’t know if anybody can look at something they did when they were 14 and not wince.

I wish people could get over the hang-up of subtitles, although at the same time, you know, that’s kind of why I’m kind of pro dubbing.

Part of me longs to do a job where there’s not a gray area.

I’d like to be Dakota Fanning when I get young.

My kids are young and my life with them is really stimulating and really full and significant.

Well, I certainly was exposed to and learned to appreciate the work of great directors early on. As a kid, my mother used to take me to see really interesting arty films in Los Angeles.

I prefer to commit 100 per cent to a movie and make fewer films, because it takes over your life.

I spent a lot of time not in school, so I didn’t have deep relationships with kids my own age.

It’s an interesting combination: Having a great fear of being alone, and having a desperate need for solitude and the solitary experience. That’s always been a tug of war for me.

Knowing what paint a painter uses or having an understanding of where he was in the history of where he came from doesn’t hurt your appreciation of the painting.