I Like To Be In

If I Make Two Movies My Entire Life, And They're Two Movies That - Whether They Make A Lot Of Money Or Two People Go To See Them - They Speak Of Me, Then I Consider Them Incredibly Successful. I Don't Need To Be Steven Spielberg.

With 'taxi Driver,' I Had This Eureka Moment. I Realized That Acting Could Be Much More Than What I Had Been Doing. I Had To Build A Character That Wasn't Me.

When I Was Growing Up, Books Took Me Away From My Life To A Solitary Place That Didn't Feel Lonely. They Celebrated The Outcasts, People Who Sat On The Margins Of Society Contemplating Their Interiors. . . Books Were My Cure For A Romanticized Unhappiness, For The Anxiety Of Impending Adulthood. They Were All Mine, Private Islands With Secret Passwords Only The Worthy Could Utter.

Look, It's Terrible, I Know, But Weakness Really, Really Bugs Me, To The Point That If There Is A Wounded Bird On The Sidewalk, I Look At It And I Go: I Think I'll Just Kick It.

I Didn't Have Any Ambition To Produce Big Mainstream Popcorn Movies.