My dad always told me and my two brothers, “Don’t ever get too proud or too old to say that you love me and to say that you love each other.” “Love” is a pretty commonly used word in our family. When I talk to my brothers now on the phone midday, we always end the conversation saying, “I love you. I love you, bro.”

I think some of the best advice I got as a young session musician — the first time I played on something — they came back and said, “Now just play me half of what you know. Okay, that was impressive, but that’s not what I need here.” So it’s really an exercise on what’s best going to serve the work in front of you, what’s the job that will do that the best.

One of them—I forgot the others— that I thought was really interesting is, Don’t take yourself too seriously. And I believe in that—I think I believe in that.

It became such a big part of my life that even when I sleep in past 6 o'clock in the morning, I feel guilty because I hear my father's voice saying, you know, Arnold, that's not how this country was built, by sleeping in. Be useful. Do something. What are you doing now?

Poverty in the world. Injustice.

Like everybody, I wanted to meet Andy Warhol. I was impressed by his work and how daring he was. I think he changed the cinema completely, simply by opening his camera and letting it go. He dealt differently with time and duration, and he didn’t care about how people would perceive it. It changed the cinema for me.

What I notice or discover has to grow in my mind. I always wait until the ideas and impulses are so strong that they invade my mind and I have to pursue them.

Well, I don’t agree with Sartre. I like others.

How people need the possibility of sharing, of not being alone. It’s bad to be poor, but it’s difficult to be alone.

I was curious. Curiosity is a good thing. And I was curious about different people. And, as I said, I waited until something was strong enough to disturb me or inspire me to make a film.