“Things I like: fires, Venice, tequila, sunsets, babies, silent films, heights, coarse salt, top hats, large long-haired dogs, ship models, cinnamon, goose down quilts, pocket watches, the smell of newly mown grass, linen, Bach, Louis XIII furniture, sushi, microscopes, large rooms, ups, boots, drinking water, maple sugar candy. Things I dislike: sleeping in an apartment…

“I feel—as a Jew—a special responsibility to side with the oppressed and the weak.”

“Filmmaking is nitpicking, anxiety, fights, claustrophobia, exhaustion, euphoria…. catching inspiration on the wing.… Filmmaking is blind instinct, petty calculations, smooth generalship, daydreaming, pigheadedness, grace, bluff, risk.”

“I believe that courage is morally neutral. I can well imagine wicked people being brave and good people being timid or afraid. I don’t consider it a moral virtue.”

“All my life I have been looking for someone intelligent to talk to.”