I know how to have a rehearsal with the actors, because I'm an actor. I made them do silly games and exercises, which they never do. They were mortified but you want to get them to be free. Sidney Lumet saw the film, and he couldn‚Äôt believe how free everybody was. He said ‚ÄòWhat did you do, give them drugs or something‚Äô I said ‚ÄòNo. I didn‚Äôt have that kind of budget‚Äô–John Turturro

For me, “Romance & Cigarettes” is a working class opera. When people don‚Äôt have money, they escape through song, much like prayer. Being a lover of Fellini, Powell and Pressburger, and Bu?±uel, I was encouraged to not think I was completely out of my mind. Life isn‚Äôt a comedy, or a tragedy, or a musical, but all of these elements are part of our everyday experience–John Turturro

My favorite stories are bittersweet–you laugh, you cry, you're moved‚ÄîThat's how life is; it's never one thing or another, and it shouldn't be because real life is a little messy. I want to make movies that reflect that–writer-director LaGravenese

“I've been a movie fan since I was a kid, I've always liked melodramas and suspense movies. There was a movie I saw when I was 15, 'Hangover Square,' with Bernard Herrmann score. It's a flamboyant Edwardian melodrama about a composer who goes crazy when he hears a certain sound and goes out a murders the nearest beautiful girl. I remember just loving that score, and I thought it would really be fun to scare an audience and see if you could do it while people are singing–Sondheim

For Lyra, the child at the center of The Golden Compass, the journey begins in the relative safety of her Oxford home and takes her to the edge of the world. My voyage with this story began in London seven years ago, when a friend suggested I read Philip Pullman‚Äôs books while I was in the relative safety of directing a movie called About a Boy–Chris Weitz