“I've always known that I love directing but I was really aware of it while making 'Beginners.' I am my happiest when I'm on set directing. I am also my kindest. When the actors get in front of the camera, it makes them very vulnerable. I am so in love with them for trying so hard.”
“I'm not a craftsman of graphics or art or film. I'm more of an idea generator and manufacturer.”
“I am intrigued by inanimate objects. They're a piece of history, someone's statement and ideas of life.”
“Humans are vulnerable, messy little animals and that's normal. And all I want to do is make a space for that in my films.”
“I don't really believe that documentary is objective reality and fiction is all illusion.”
“To me, sadness and humor aren't disrelated and humor is the best tool I've had against the sadness in my life.”
“Being a good Hans Haacke student, part of his influence on me is that there's no difference between a gallery show and a film - or even an ad and a T-shirt-in terms of cultural legitimacy. They're just different contexts in which to have some sort of communication.”
“It's funny now how much we look at - whatever you want to call it: art, design, culture stuff, film - online, and how in the online world, you're instantly global.”
“Life doesn't just happen; it's constructed through the history of power. And that's something I am interested in and so is the art world: a world that's trying to engage socially, with a leftist slant, to work out how we got here.”
“OK, so my parents were married in 1955 and my mom knew my dad was gay and my dad knew he was gay and so I was, like, 'Why in the heck did you get married?' Like, what was going on? What was that time? It's like this crazy paradox that my whole life is based on, or my family's based on. So I spent a lot of time trying to understand '55.”