BENNETT MILLER

For me, personally, the value of a film is not determined by a review, but the health of the film is.

Every relationship probably has, at its inception, a hundred things that you could pick on and divert you from it, but the feeling is there. You figure out a way to make it work.

I think I approach things with an outsider's perspective.

I want to work with performers who really are ready to lose their minds, you know? People who are established and have talent, but who are ready to break new ground and really be cracked open in a new way.

My business life is really simple. It's like, get check. Put check in bank. Pay rent. I've never bought a stock in my life. I never got caught up in that trip. And the truth is, I don't obsess about money ever.

I think I am missing a gene that most people have to enable them to feel happiness about success and these kind of things.

Honestly, my smartest business decision was to never do anything that I didn't love doing.

A film cannot make it into the culture without the support of critics.

I don't believe in God in the way I often see described by religion.

You make a movie and you'd like it to be appreciated, respected, embraced.

I am attracted to anything that does not feel derivative.

People are attracted to entertainment, for sure, or jokes, excitement and romantically heightened stories that might be false, but are still attractive fantasies.

I think the mind has a way of getting to where it needs to get to. If you are persistent.

It's great making a film and having it embraced and seen. I really enjoy that.

I like to rehearse. We did a lot of rehearsals for 'Moneyball,' but it is really individual to the actor. It's not like, 'Here is my process, everybody. Fit in.'

As a filmmaker, you want people to understand and get what you do, and it's a lot to ask for.

I think Will Ferrell is probably completely evil, the darkest of them all. He is known among comics as the dark knight. An evil, evil man and a dangerous soul.

I think when an actor feels like they're being watched with great sensitivity and a subtle eye and a nose for truthfulness, that has some effect.

I think all good sports movies aren't really about sports.

Kenny Lonergan, as a filmmaker, doesn't tell stories so much as he observes them, which is to say, his films don't come pre-digested. You have to bring your own enzymes. It's a more gripping and challenging experience.

I hardly read fiction; I mostly read nonfiction. I like to examine material things.

If you find yourself considering a project that seems like a layup, then you're diluted, or that movie's probably not the right movie for you to be making.

Filmmaking requires the participation and cooperation of many people. It's unrealistic to expect that you're not going to be challenged by unforeseeable forces from every direction.

You can write ten versions of a scene, and then, on the day, discover that something in the original scene worked. It's hard on writers. Hard on actors, hard on editors, hard on me, hard on the producers, who require patience and confidence. But I can't get to the end without going through this process.

My films are inquiries. I've chopped down all the signposts, I really resist taking moral positions.