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" The stuff I'm passionate about is what I write; it isn't multi-million-dollar franchise movies. "

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" Characters I create are just mixtures of the people I know. "

" I've always felt that I wanted to make a Marvel film... I just want to make sure I'm not making an episode. "

" My job is to express myself. "

" A lot of people are trying to get out of their home country and think 'making it' is if you're able to work in another. For me... I'd be quite content to keep doing my own little films down there for the rest of my filmmaking career. "

" My father is a visual artist, so I was influenced by him, and my mother is an English teacher who forced me to read a lot of books and poetry and get involved in theatre. I developed a varied taste for different arts. "

" I love living in New Zealand. "

" I really didn't want to be boxed into becoming a certain kind of film-maker - becoming the Maori story film-maker because I had made those short films. "

" I'm in all my films, I can't help it. I just jam myself in there if there's a space. "

" Indigenous people in films, it's all, like, nose flutes and panpipes and, you know, people talking to ghosts... which I hate. "

Indigenous People

" When you're on set, you're like, 'Everyone's judging me because I'm the director, and everyone thinks I'm doing this because I just love myself and I want to do everything.' Part of it's true: I do want to do everything, and I do kind of love myself. "

" I've always said that, first and foremost, I make films for New Zealanders. They're my target audience. Then after that, if people appreciate my stories from outside this country, then that's an added bonus. "

" New Zealand was kind of getting a reputation for making middle-of-the-road films that weren't really that unique. They were kind of New Zealand versions of overseas films, and for sure, having an Oscar nomination totally helped me get funding. "

" When I play characters, I like playing people who just comment on stuff, stand around and talk. "

" I've always found the script to be more of a skeleton, the template. "

" I'm always fascinated by the theme of children who parent the adults. "

" You make up a character, there's always gonna be parts of you that, like it or not, shine through. "

" The thing for me is that 'Thor' was an indie film that just had a few more zeros on the budget. At heart, it is just a simple story about a guy trying to get home to deal with someone who has broken into his house. It's just 'After Hours,' but set in space. "

" It was never really my plan to become a filmmaker. "

" At the end of the day, the reality is we're all losers, and we're all uncoordinated. We're the worst of all of the animals on earth, and there's something quite endearing about that. "

" New Zealand was such a weird place in the 1980s. For instance, we used to have this commercial in the late 1970s where this guy drives this car and stops outside a corner store. He goes in to buy something, and when he comes out, his car is gone. He's like, 'Huh?' Then a voice says, 'Don't leave your keys in the car.' "

" You have to let go of the control and allow things to develop. You need to have a flexible attitude, especially working with kids. "

" I wish I was less good-looking and more unpopular. Then I could get into politics and use my pent-up resentment about being ugly and unpopular to systematically destroy the country. "

" Within the family unit, you have people you grew up with who are supposed to be your brother, father, or your mother who are almost like strangers and acquaintances. "

" With some actors, you can tell, just from their different backgrounds and their different approaches to working, they would have just a natural conflict, just a sort of friction. "

" I've loved vampires since I was a kid, or loved a lot of the vampire movies that I saw. Anything with sharp teeth, really. I remember you could get those fake vampire teeth, and I remember just keeping them in all the time. "

" If someone asked, 'What are your films like?,' the best I can come up with is that they're, like, a fine balance between comedy and drama. And they deal mainly with the clumsiness of humanity. "

" Coming from a very small country, it's always nice to see our own doing well. "

" Basically, the big studios and companies distributing your movie just take a big cut of profit for making posters. "

" I was depressed about the roles that were on offer, so I had to make my own stories. "

" Independent films are really the best ones out there. They're the most original stories, and they're very good. "