#five minute interview

If I weren't talking to you right now I'd be...

On my way to Bafta to give a masterclass. I'll be talking about the photography and the approach in my movie. It's about the conversation between light and dark. It [World Trade Center] is a poem to the ordinary things of life.

A phrase I use far too often is...

"Possibly." It conditions anything you say even if you believe it. It becomes an anomaly.

I wish people would take more notice of...

Some of the films I've made. The Doors was one of my favourites. It's a very sensuous film.

The most surprising thing that happened to me was...

Fuck, that's a lifetime you are talking about. Sometimes boredom is the most surprising. I am just not used to it. When I was younger, I knew it very well.

A common misperception of me is...

That I have a violent mind is just one of them. There is this character called Oliver Stone out there in the internet world. It means different things to different people. It's an enigma that's often misunderstood.

I am not a politician but...

If I was, the first thing I'd do is try to tell the truth. The second thing I'd do is to raise an organisation around the truth.

I'm good at...

I’m certainly caring in bed. I guess I can be a good conversationalist at times.

I'm very bad at...

Carpentry or gardening or anything that requires the precision of my hands.

In moments of weakness...

I feel worthless. My brain shrinks to a pea and I flush.

You know me as a director but in truer life I'd have been a...

Shipowner. I love the concept of moving things across oceans.

In a nutshell, my philosophy is this:

I would agree with Socrates: Know thyself.

The 5-Minute Interview is off to a very encouraging start.  As I hoped, it's bringing back responses from interesting people.  I'm learning as much about the questions I picked as I am about the respondents - my favorite questions are the ones that bring back specific answers.  The third question,"What challenge or issue defines our era?" has produced some very cool responses so far. Here's a sampling of them:

Balancing our moral/ethical/social beliefs and freedoms with the demands we must meet to be productive, "successful" members of society. It's hard to buy a house in a place you like when you work a badly paid job you love.

Not enough people are chasing after their dreams.

The economy, gay marriage/gay rights/, Middle East War, obesity.

How everything is so polarizing. What is the greatest good for the greatest number is what should be...but because some douche or douches can't see their way clear to make it happen, it doesn't. (Case in point, universal health care.)

I'll be completely honest. I'm not quite sure what you mean by this.

Finances.

Doing meaningful things.

Autonomy.

Backlash against feminism (as evidenced in both popular culture and public policy). continued violence against women, both literal and figurative. Deepening class war.

Teenage anger.

Globalisation; throw away society; war on so many levels.

Being accepted for ourselves - gay, bi, having issues,...

Too many to list. internet privacy, future of politics and our country are two good ones.