Ryan Fleck

“A movie like 'Sugar' you couldn't make today. The climate for making movies with no movie stars, half of it in Spanish, at the budget level that we had is gone. These are high-risk elements.”

“That's the most important quality for any actor, for us: someone who can communicate what they're feeling without saying, 'This is how I feel... ' It's what's on their face.”

“I'm very excited by the notion of very different people trying to help each other out.”

“We like to learn about cultures when we make movies.”

“Everything is a mess around our house. We do all our work here, but we try to get out once a day.”

“Through the mid-80s I watched my team struggle, but in 1988 the A's made it to the Series. I was at Game 5 that year and was forced to watch the Dodgers celebrate a World Series Championship on our home turf.”

“For us, the biggest thing is casting and making sure that every role has the right fit and that person understands the role, and then, really, it's pretty easy. You just try to stay out of the way and say 'action' and 'cut' - don't say 'cut' too soon. Let it happen.”

“If it's not a high-concept movie, if you're not having outer space people come down and blow stuff up, then there's a pool of 15 to 20 male actors and 10 to 15 female actors. And if you don't get one of them, you really need to reexamine your budget and the story you're trying to tell. It's frustrating.”

“I mean, at the end of the day we're still telling stories and so we're just trying to stay focused on characters that we love and we've loved characters in all of our movies.”

“We may have our own ideas in the writing and editing stages, but we work out those disagreements in a constructive way.”

“I just hope to continue making and finishing films. And then get them seen.”

“Anytime you actually finish a film, I think it's a success. And to have that film seen and liked by audiences is the ultimate.”

“When I was 6 years old I went to my first A's game at the Coliseum. It was the 1982 season and the A's went on to finish fifth in the American League West that year.”