I'm definitely a pop artist at heart.
I consider myself more a European director who is from Iceland than an Icelandic director.
Though music was not in my blood, I always considered myself belonging to music, and that remained with me throughout my studies. The studies were my parents' wish, which I fully complied with, as one must be educated at the highest possible level.
I never had a desire to leave mainstream Hollywood. And still don't think that I've left mainstream Hollywood.
I am an off-Broadway, nonprofit kind of guy.
I'm definitely a cult artist.
I never felt bad about being lumped in with other Seattle bands. I thought it was great.
Once you're a Motown artist, you're always a Motown artist.
I've always been in institutional theater.
I never identified with 'indie,' I don't like that word.
I didn't see myself in Jia Jhangke or Wong Kar-Wai films. Those are Asian filmmakers, and I very much am an American filmmaker.
I don't know why people always compare me [ with Amiri Baraka] I was never part of the Black Arts Repertory Theater or the Black Arts Movement; people who claim that I was are wrong. I was downtown. I was living in Chelsea when they were operating in Harlem.
