I Can't Really Envision A Time When

I Think If You Think Of Yourself As Religious And If You're Given A Gift, Some May Not Think It's That Great A Gift - Some Critics. But Others Might, You Know. So You Say, Look - Whether It's Good, Bad Or Indifferent, This Is What I Do.

I Grew Up Within Italian-american Neighborhoods, Everybody Was Coming Into The House All The Time, Kids Running Around, That Sort Of Stuff, So When I Finally Got Into My Own Area, So To Speak, To Make Films, I Still Carried On.

People Say You Should Do It This Way, Someone Else Suggests That, Yes, There's Financing, But Maybe You Should Use This Actor. And There Are The Threats, At The End - If You Don't Do It This Way, You'll Lose Your Box Office; If You Don't Do It That Way, You'll Never Get Financed Again... 35, 40 Years Of This, You Get Beat Up.

I Know That I Come From Mid-20th Century America, Urban, Specifically Downtown New York, Specifically An Italian-american Area, Roman Catholic - That's Who I Am. And A Part Of What I Know Is There's A Decency To People Who Tried To Make A Living In The Kind Of World That Was Around Us And Also The Skid Row Area Of The Bowery; It Impressed Me.

What The Dalai Lama Had To Resolve Was Whether To Stay In Tibet Or Leave. He Wanted To Stay, But Staying Would Have Meant The Total Destruction Of Tibet, Because He Would Have Died And That Would Have Ripped The Heart Out Of His People.