Even when you have a big budget, you can't just shoot everything.

Making this movie was a great opportunity for me to explore high-definition. I'm glad I got to see what the challenges are, what makes it better. It works wonderfully.

The clothes back in those days were made so much better than clothes are today. They actually took time to make clothes to fit a woman's body. Today they make clothes that fit sizes, so it stretches to fit this and that.

The radio for these women is like television is for us today, which is really like looking at the radio.

A director just pushes them a little this way or that way.

But it was not possible to do this movie, in this matter of time, without a solid rehearsal period.

In scoring we have a lot that was not evident in the shooting. The radio is on all the time.

The biggest challenge was that we had to shoot so quickly and with such a limited budget.

I use something that is a real staple in the directing world. It's called a dance floor. You lay it down so that it's so smooth you can roll around, and you can put furniture on top of it. It's seamless and you don't see it.

It's kind of dangerous to cut in the camera, but that's the only way I know how to direct.

You have to examine a scene on the page first. Then you get into the basics of acting: Who are you? Who are you talking to? How do you feel about that person?

There are some scenes that work beautifully in a moving, sweeping master, which is how I like to work.

Even when you have a big budget, you can't just shoot everything.

As far as pacing the shoot is concerned, I know when I've got it. I don't think there's any reason to take ten takes unless you need them.

That's the only way I can control my movie. If you shoot everything, then everything is liable to end up in the movie. If you have a vision, you don't have to cover every scene.

Michael Ralph brilliantly plays the street prophet, a West Indian who foreshadows the Harlem riot.

The riot isn't seen in the movie, but it is alluded to. He has this one speech that gives a great sense of texture and paints a picture of what was happening in Harlem then.

Everything has to be well thought out - what do you really need, when can you do with less coverage.

Time management is a big part of the director's job.

The production team's first meeting took place at my house. I had ideas and a color scheme in mind, how I wanted the movie to look, because that has to be a real collaboration.

It goes back to a style of moviemaking I remember seeing as a child, in movies like The Man With The Golden Arm, which I think was shot all on a sound stage.

But out of limitations comes creativity.

I got my dailies every day, although I couldn't always look at them because I was usually preparing for the next day's shoot, both as an actress and as the director.

I'm always moving forward.

I design my shots. I walk the rehearsal as the camera and say 'this is where I want to be... I want this look.

I didn't need the insurance. I do it again if my DP tells me it didn't look good in the camera or if the actors didn't hit their marks. But if everything was working why do it again?

As in geology, so in social institutions, we may discover the causes of all past changes in the present invariable order of society.

I just want a quiet life. I think that's what everybody says when they get older.

I want to work and be happy.

Just look at the great Nelson Mandela. He came out of prison and saved his entire country. Some of the best people in the world have spent time in prison.

At a purely practical level, history is important because it provides the basic skills needed for students to go further in sociology, politics, international relations and economics. History is also an ideal discipline for almost all careers in the law, the civil service and the private sector.

I'm the biggest slob in the world. My apartment is a mess.

Because an appeal makes logical sense is no guarantee that it will work.

I wish I had had my books when I was a kid, I do.

'Die a Happy Man' was one of those that, when I wrote it and sent it to my label, their response was, 'This is a career record.' I was like, 'Why do you think that?' I think the stars aligned.

After 'Secretary,' I was wanting very badly to find something to make that I really cared about.

Mom was the greatest influence of my childhood. She wanted to save me from the vice, lust, and drinking that was all about me.

I never went to college. I was pregnant at 23.

Cruelty must be whitewashed by a moral excuse and pretense of reluctance.

I still think like a critic, and I still analyze films like a critic. However, it's not possible to write criticism if you're making films.

Success is a scary concept because it assumes something kind of final. In the grand scheme of life, I don't think there is some ultimate success.

The more flesh you show, the higher up the ladder you go.

I'm not a talker. I'm a formulator.

We conservatives bemoan the decline in values that has besieged our society. Why then should we not abhor the lack of morality involved in discharging untested chemicals into the air ground and water to alter and harm to whatever degree human life and wildlife As a conservative I do abhor it.

I never sue journalists. I employ journalists. I employ too many of them. I don't sue journalists.

When you play a violin piece, you are a storyteller, and you're telling a story.

So you got the cool New Yorkers, and then there are the less-than-cool New Yorkers.

People know who you are when you've never met them. For them, through interviews and seeing you perform, they feel like they know you and you've never seen them before. It's really different, but it's awesome.

We've always been suburb people, and we lived in the East Bay when I was in Oakland. This time around, we're staying in the city, and my kids are getting that city life experience, which is something you don't get too much of in Alabama.