Darren Aronofsky

“I wasn't a big fan of social anthropology. And, luckily, that created room for me to work in visual arts because I sort of ignored my requirements. I think I was attracted to social anthropology because I liked to travel and was always interested in far-off places.”

“Casting ethnic characters is a very hard thing to do, but it's important. It's also interesting.”

“Animators have to live life 24 times as long as we do - every 24 frames of a second.”

“I think it's important as a filmmaker, as any person working in the arts, that you've got to try new stuff and challenge yourself and take chances.”

“If you ask any person on this crew what they think of Hugh Jackman they'll admit they've never seen anything like it. I'll give him an emotional note and he'll hit it every time.”

“'Angel Heart' was one of my favorite films.”

“I think it's my nature to try and make original content, and that's what I've done, is just try and approach things in an original way, and do things differently.”

“There's always been a lot of pressure and tension on the line. If 'Pi' didn't work out, I have no idea what my career would be. I don't think I would have gotten another shot at it. If 'Requiem for a Dream' didn't work out, they would have called me a 'one-hit wonder with a sophomore slump'.”

“I'm Godless. And so I've had to make my God, and my God is narrative filmmaking, which is -- ultimately what my God becomes, which is what my mantra becomes, is the theme.”

“As filmmakers, we can show where a person's mind goes, as opposed to theater, which is more to sit back and watch it.”

“At the end of Requiem all I wanted to do was get a DV camera and just do a small film. But then the hunger comes back.”

“I had some big ups and downs when I was in my 20s and the one thing I learned was, no matter how low it gets, something good will come along - something always comes out of that dark period.”

“Right after I did 'The Fountain,' I wanted to go make a documentary or something that was less constructed - more natural. I was searching for a project, and sniffing around, 'The Wrestler' fit right in.”

“Comic books and graphic novels are a great medium. It's incredibly underused.”

“I know some people that have gone through serious struggles. People that were close to me, and I've seen some terrible things about people who lose it. So I think that type of pain is something that's human and that, actually, can help us look at ourselves a little bit.”

“Classical scores go up and down; they're kind of hysterical in a way. And movie scores are much more - they just drive and move forward, and they build and can't go up and down at that same speed. It's a big job to turn that into something that pushes the movie along.”

“I couldn't sleep one night and I was sitting in my office and I realized that I was an independent filmmaker.”

“I was a TV junkie as a kid. I am the Sesame Street generation.”

“I hope that Requiem is better than Pi. I hope that Pi is better than my student films, and I'm hoping that I'm getting better as I get older.”

“I'm not a comic book guy at all.”