movies

Every great film should seem new every time you see it.

If you're sitting in your minivan, playing your computer animated films for your children in the back seat, is it the animation that's entertaining you as you drive and listen? No, it's the storytelling. That's why we put so much importance on story. No amount of great animation will save a bad story.

If you see voters as rational, you'll be a terrible politician. People are not wired to be rational. Our brains simply evolved to keep us alive. Brains did not evolve to give us truth. Brains merely give us movies in our minds that keeps us sane and motivated. But none of it is rational or true, except maybe sometimes by coincidence.

I only make movies to finance my fishing.

Making movies is a very different experience in a lot of ways. It's difficult when you're used to owning the copyright and having a landlord's possessory rights - I rent my plays to the companies that do them and, if I'm upset, I can pull the play. But the only two directors I've worked with are pretty great.

How do people relate to movies now, when they're on portable devices or streaming them? It's not as much about going to the movies. That experience has changed.

Cell phones tend to bring us more inside of our lives whereas movies offer a chance to escape, so there are two competing forces.

Unless you burst into movies as a sex goddess, you're likely to play wives and mothers. I came into movies as a teenager in 'They Shoot Horses, Don't They' (1969) playing a pregnant waif from the Ozarks. I didn't get a chance to burst into movies in 'Body Heat.' My career isn't based on having a 23-inch waist and a big bust, though I do.

Filmmaking is a chance to live many lifetimes.

When you really study espionage movies, or spy movies, the beginnings are really set up to have, like, an amazing bit of action, but at the moment you're watching it, you have no idea why or what it's about.

Signing up for 'It Follows,' I didn't have any idea it was going to turn out the way it did, but seeing it, the music and the feel of it definitely was pretty amazing, getting that kind of throwback feel to classic horror movies.

Horror movies are the best date movies. There's no wondering, 'When do I put my arm around her?'

What bugs me is that movies don't reflect how interesting and vibrant women are. We don't treasure women as they get older.

In life, single women are the most vulnerable adults. In movies, they are given imaginary power.

If there's specific resistance to women making movies, I just choose to ignore that as an obstacle for two reasons: I can't change my gender, and I refuse to stop making movies.

'The Princess Bride' is one of my favorite movies of all time.

Watching movies was like going to school for me. It still is. You're always learning. Even if it's bad, you're learning what not to do.

The best part of making the movies... learning from the pros themselves.