Everything takes me longer than I expect. It's the sad truth about life.
Nothing ever goes as planned in China.
In life and in movies, it's a similar challenge, where you have expectations, and you end up in situations that are not meeting your expectations.
I've figured out what to do so far, but it's always the next thing you come to where the man with the bucket of ice cold water is waiting - whoosh! in your face. That's why you work with directors who know what to tell you to do.
Whatever plan one makes, there is a hidden difficulty somewhere.
It's something you hope doesn't happen. When you sign on to do a job, you hope you'll be able to get it done. But that's not always in your control.
I want people to know that it's not always dandelions and roses when you're doing something like 'Aladdin.'
… minor incidents—the kind you can never really foresee—combine to lower the general level of performance, so that one always falls short of the intended goal.
The very reasons sometimes that you make a film are the reasons for its failure.
There's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip.
Too often, I've seen instances where we have an idea of what we want to be, where we want to go, and with whom - before life steps in the way, throws something at us that is beyond our control, and changes everything.
I've had many songs where I've gone, 'Oh, my God, this song is going to be huge!' but it wasn't the right artist, or something just didn't happen. It didn't make the song any worse. It just didn't line up. That does happen.
The joys we expect are not so bright, nor the troubles so dark as we fancy they will be.
Good filmmakers make bad films; it happens.
I was on a show called '12 Miles of Bad Road' with Lily Tomlin - it was an incredible HBO show. We shot 6 episodes, previewed it before the finale of 'The Sopranos;' it was written up as a 'Great New Show on HBO,' and then the whole thing was canned. Gone. Disappeared. That's when I realized anything can happen in this business.
Projects you think are no-brainers stall, and other things see the light of day. You never count anything out.
The minute you think you've got it made, disaster is just around the corner.
I know so many people that were really able to lead 'perfect' lives. They meet the right person, they make the babies, they get the jobs, they get the house and it's essentially a smooth ride. That really didn't happen for me.
It causes havoc on set anytime a director wants to go backward rather than forward.
Great power is setting a goal, working hard for it, and achieving it in exactly the way you expected with no consequences and no remainders after the long division is done. But does that happen to anyone? The unexpected always hitches a ride along with everything you planned.
Most of the films I've tried to make I've ended up making. And they don't necessarily go in the order you want to do. So I haven't got a huge list of undone films or stuff that's just been abandoned forever.
I was fortunate to go out on my terms while still at the top but a lot of people are not so lucky.
For disappointments, that come not by our own folly, they are the trials or corrections of Heaven: and it is our own fault, if they prove not our advantage.
Sometimes you get lucky and things are as easy as you had imagined, but that's rarely the case.
What you think is going to be a big break or opportunity can sometimes turn into the opposite, and vice versa.
