With 'Believe' bringing really big success for me outside of the U.K. for the first time it meant I have been touring around the world and that led to a gap from the studio. I really feel like the gap has done me the world of good. Throughout that time I was able to collect songs that I really loved.

The thing with me. I can't stick musicians. I've thought about this. I can't stand them and being stuck in a studio with them I think that's my strength I can hear what they can't.

Having soon discovered to be great I must appear so and therefore studiously avoided mixing in society and wrapped myself in mystery devoting my time to fasting and prayer.

I used to sit near Marilyn Monroe in the Actor's Studio. She'd get dressed up because that was her identity. Sad. Those cameras wouldn't leave her alone. She didn't know where to hide.

And I remember going to the record studio and there was a park across the street and I'd see all the children playing and I would cry because it would make me sad that I would have to work instead.

Being in the studio is a really romantic time.

I try to respect the rules of the silent movies and I tried to make signification to make sense and also the crew were very good and the fact that we shot in LA in the real Hollywood studios and houses. We shot in the bed of Mary Pickford and you cannot be any more accurate than that so that helped a lot.

I still don't understand the music industry that much. Everything I learned was from hanging out with rock musicians in studios. I certainly have respect for those who make music their livelihood.

I record all of my music with authentic instruments in a studio before we start editing doing many many versions. The music shapes the film as we edit so it has an organic relationship to the content.

Having a studio tell you when to jump and how high eight months of the year for six years is not a relationship I want to get into again.

My parents are artists in their world in the world of modern artists you are supposed to just go into your studio and tune everything out and your entire relationship with your work is supposed to be a super private one. That was the way to do it and you weren't deeply truly artistic if that wasn't the way you were engaging the press.

The most positive step is to try to expand the employment base by making it if not economically friendly at least not economically disastrous for studios to take on deficits.

I've been singing for six years. I've been in and out of the studios with top producers but it wasn't something I was ready to express to the public or to the press. I wasn't ready to come out. I wanted to perfect my voice and be 100 percent positive that I could come out right.

Why are we talking about talking? Why negotiating about negotiating? It's very simple. If you want to get to peace put all your preconditions on the side sit down opposite a table not in a studio by the way.

Choreography is mentally draining but there's a pleasure in getting into the studio with the dancers and the music.

I'm intrigued by films that have a singular vision behind them. A lot of studio movies have ten writers by the time they're done. You have a movie testing 200 times making adjustments according to various people's opinions. It's difficult to have an undistilled vision.

The core of the movie business remains intact and it's not descending in scope. Studios want movies that are bigger than ever.

All studio movies are the middle of the Bell curve. The only way to do something is to do it yourself. And the only way to do that is to not take any money from anyone or take as little money as possible from anyone and that's it.

I don't watch the movies I make so I haven't seen 'Footloose' since it came out. You see this young hungry actor it's pretty fun. I was the only one they screen tested. It was an attempt by the director and producer to talk the head of the studio into hiring me because they didn't want me.

I was at the end of the studio system so when I walked into movies I had a magnificent suite in which I had a living room and a kitchen and a complete makeup room. I had everything just for me. With the independents you're kind of roughing it literally.

I just feel like with independent movies... they're really free to do whatever they want. They're not afraid to make a statement about anything and there's not a huge studio behind them making sure that everything is wholesome and politically correct and all that.

In a lot of movies especially big studio ones they're not constructed in any other way than to get people to like them and then tell their friends. It's a product.

When I was a little kid - and even still - I loved magic tricks. When I saw how movies got made - at least had a glimpse when I went on the Universal Studios tour with my grandfather I remember feeling like this was another means by which I could do magic.

There's this index that tallies up how much your movies have made and if they haven't grossed a certain amount then you're not bankable. I know I'm not Will Smith but you know my ranking's pretty low. The only studio picture I've done is 'Zodiac ' and that didn't perform that well.