Lisa Cholodenko

“At the base of it, my gut instinct tells me that there's a kind of fundamental misogyny in the culture. There just is. You know, there's just a weird anxiety around women.”

“I had pretty cool parents. Still do.”

“Making the choice to cast someone in a lead role is a big one. You don't want to squander your opportunity.”

“In May 2006, I had our son, Calder. I spent the next couple of years learning how to be a mom.”

“I think when you're writing films that just come fresh out of your own imagination - I think probably anyone who's done that, there are certain themes or styles.”

“This whole Oscar thing is so political. It's about how much a film grosses, and who's in it, and how well it has been promoted.”

“I had a great love affair in high school and let myself have that love affair and tried to keep it to myself.”

“I got exposed to art-house cinema and foreign films. I was from L.A., so it was a film culture that I didn't know about.”

“There is a core value I wanted to illuminate: No matter what kind of family you have - straight, gay, married, single parent, separated, no kids, two kids, 20 kids, whatever - we all go through the human comedy. But if the bonds are strong enough, and the desire is there, you can get to the other side, still together and still a family.”

“I feel like if you feel good about a script, and you feel confident about your ability to direct and just capture it right, it's all just, really, really in your favor there.”

“Everyone on the planet has a dark and a light. That's a multi-dimensional character.”

“I get asked why there aren't more female directors all the time. I'm kind of reluctant to talk about it. That's not because I think the question is irrelevant or stupid. It's just that there are so many mitigating factors.”

“I think invariably when you are dealing with relationships, the films really center on that, and the plot is really born out of that. That's the most core part of a relationship: intimacy, I think, whether it's expressed or not.”

“The source of so much of my anxiety in life and the tensions in my relationship is my anxiety about my kid. It's all very abstract and unfounded and ungrounded.”

“I've done episodic television and some other things that have been written by other people.”

“I was very influenced by the films of the '70s.”

“Wendy and I both wanted kids, but since we were pushing 40, the clock was ticking.”

“I don't feel like my films are about gender; they are about identity - but a different slant on identity.”