Ang Lee

I'm actually living my life with the material I choose to work with.

These days I'm mostly familiar with two parts of L.A.: one is movie culture, and the other is Asian culture. The Westside is work, and the Eastside is Chinese - which means my friends.

I think I can work with any type of actor.

The father figure is something I love, but also suffocate from and want to work against.

I did a women's movie, and I'm not a woman. I did a gay movie, and I'm not gay. I learned as I went along.

The source of all the material comes from nothingness, illusion is working more on things you can prove. That's the principle, the essence of life, it is actually an illusion, not immaterial. That's worth pursuing. So illusion is not nothing. In a way, that is the truth.

When I grew up, in Taiwan, the Korean War was seen as a good war, where America protected Asia. It was sort of an extension of World War II. And it was, of course, the peak of the Cold War. People in Taiwan were generally proAmerican. The Korean War made Japan. And then the Vietnam War made Taiwan. There is some truth to that.

I think the American West really attracts me because it's romantic. The desert, the empty space, the drama.

Sexuality is a big issue, but there are others - how much you commit to a relationship, to social obligation, to honesty and being honest with yourself.

3D is quite a lot more advanced in animated movies for live-action movies we're just taking baby steps, we're just in the beginning.

After making several tragic movies in a row, I was looking to do a comedy, and one without cynicism.

Making movies is a way of understanding myself and the world.

I think a lot of people do big movies not because they are talented artists but because they can function in the circumstances.

I have a lot of repression. So repression is what I make movies about.

I look at American movies, the big muscles, and try to apply that to Chinese film-making.

In the past I've made movies that were pretty universally liked. You can't really hate them. You can discard them, but you can't really hate them.

Sensitivity and money are like parallel lines. They don't meet.

If there's something that can be formulated, regulated, give you security, then nobody would lose money. Every movie would be successful. And that's certainly not the case.

When I sent those scripts, that was the lowest point of my life. We'd just had our second son, and when I went to collect them from hospital, I went to the bank to try and get some money to buy some diapers, the screen showed I've got $26 left.

I hope people don't compare 2D and 3D because 3D's new, it's unfair to compare to 2D which is really sophisticated, even when we're jaded about it. 3D just began, give it a chance, let the equipment and projection system catch up and be better, let the price go down, let more filmmakers get a hold of it more easily.