I'm a pessimist. But I'm a pessimist with a sense of responsibility.

I think of a hero as someone who understands the degree of responsibility that comes with his freedom.

If you truly believe that artists have a responsibility to uphold their liberal virtues by using their massive platforms, then those artists should be judged by the danger and inconvenience that they face for doing so, not by the rewards they receive for parroting consensus.

Listen, real poetry doesn't say anything; it just ticks off the possibilities. Opens all doors. You can walk through any one that suits you.

I think a responsibility comes with notoriety, but I never think of it as power. It's more like something you hold, like grains of sand. If you keep your hand closed, you can have it and possess it, but if you open your fingers in any way, you can lose it just as quickly.

It is my livelihood. But its responsibility lies with the film makers who, after 50 years of sound film, have not been able to give cinema an identity of its own.