“There’s a lot of Latinos right now, a lot of filmmakers and writers that are Latin too.”

I think having a vision can make someone an influential man. I’m not talking about acting or anything like that, I’m talking about people I admire, whether it’s a writer or a musician or a sports figure or a politician, whatever.

Am I getting better at making choices? Well, I think I might be getting better at reading scripts.

I used to play basketball and I was pretty competitive, but I was never a bad loser. I never got angry. For me it was always about doing my best and devoting myself to a challenge.

Regarding green screen, green screen is really like doing some stage work. You have to make believe that there is a window, make believe that something is there that is really not there and convince the audience. It’s part of acting.

License to Kill’ is not one of the great Bond movies.

Before I was ever in high school, I had dark circles under my eyes.

I won and I get to scream and jump a little. But I got to go back to work tomorrow.

To me the thing with ‘Grease’ was that it was the first movie that as a kid I wanted to get up and do what they were doing.

There’s something about the Oscar that gives you sort of stripes where you feel you can dare to walk into a studio like Universal and say, “Hey guys, how about an idea of me playing the wolf man?”

Before I was even in high school, I had dark circles under my eyes. Rumor was that I was a junkie. I have dark circles under my eyes, deal with it.

When I was a little kid, I was the first kid in my neighborhood to have a pet alligator.

I mean I like most of the films that I’ve seen that I’ve been in. Those are the kind of films that I like to see. Am I getting better at making choices? Well, I think I might be getting better at reading scripts. Does that make any sense?

It’s funny, but when I arrived in California to start college I was much more interested in becoming a surfer and cruise along in life from one beach to the next. I didn’t plan out any huge career for myself.

I guess I rooted for the Creature from the Black Lagoon.

I’ve had people ask me: ‘How can you make a movie about a murderer? A terrorist?’ What they don’t understand is that I’m in support of everyone who appears on screen. I have to be. I take the position of everyone who’s on screen. I’m not judging them one way or another.

My grandfather was a lawyer, my dad was a lawyer, my mum was a lawyer, I got an uncle who’s a lawyer, I got cousins that are lawyers.

I believe that it is this quality that draws people to come and see a film, and that it is the hope of attaining this quality that inspires the filmmaker to make his film in the first place.

I don’t try to make a place in history at all! People put me in the history of cinema because my first film, La pointe-courte, was so ahead of some other filmmakers.

When I started I did not know I wanted to be a filmmaker. I started – I made a film. Then when I finished I said, Oh my god it’s so beautiful – I should be a filmmaker!

Many filmmakers have made resurgent work, and I was just a little ahead of the time.

There are certain artists and filmmakers who, I get the impression, are trying to show off how bad their characters can be, how immoral their characters can be.

I’m a filmmaker, I’m a storyteller, an entertainer, if you will, so what can I do to participate?

I’m pretty committed to being a filmmaker because it incorporates everything I love: music, art direction, story, and you know – everything.

I think, as a filmmaker, it’s important to be honest with yourself at all times in terms of what’s working and what’s not.