Quotes

The Decline of Western Civilization (1981) was financed by two businessmen from the Valley who wanted to finance films. They had no idea I was going in to pitch a punk rock movie.

I generally think about myself as someone who studies human behavior and is trying to figure out what the hell is going on in our current society. If I can leave any film that helps define a certain time after I'm dead then that's great.

[on why she does documentaries about metal and punk music] "I mean, look, you don't see me making documentaries on Britney Spears, you know what I mean? Sweetheart of a little girl, you know. Or Madonna. That's not my thing. I just like this harder edge stuff. That's just me."

["After Wayne's World (1992), you directed a bunch of studio fodder including The Little Rascals (1994) and Senseless (1998). What steered you in this direction?") When someone offers you $2.5 million to direct a film, you just fucking take it. I took the money and made a bunch of movies - The Little Rascals (1994), The Beverly Hillbillies (1993), Black Sheep (1996) and Senseless (1998). After I did Wayne's World (1992) - I tried like hell to direct movies I had written and books that I wanted to adapt for film. I tried so hard to do something beside television remakes but I couldn't get anything going. That is where the sexism in the film industry becomes all too apparent. If I was a guy, I swear to God I would have been able to get my own shit going after "Wayne's World".

My whole career up until Wayne's World (1992) didn't produce any monetary funds. When I directed Wayne's World, I made close to $150,000 - the biggest payday I had to date. My percentage points from Wayne's World enabled me to pay off all of the debts from my previous works, but I only came up even in the end.

[on Mike Myers] I hated that bastard for years. But when I saw Austin Powers, I went, 'I forgive you, Mike. You can be moody, you can be a jerk, you can be things that others of us can't be - because you are profoundly talented. And I forgive you.'

L.A. is the make-it city where everyone wants to be a star and so frustration is at its epitome.

Punk rockers are the termites in the woodwork of society. But somehow I love them.

[on why kids in the Los Angeles punk scene are so angry] These kids see the good life every day on TV. They see how perfect the world can be and they get frustrated because it isn't perfect for them.

[on leaving Hollywood after being frustrated over a lack of decent projects] They can blow me.

[making movies] Filmmaking is about trying to master or change reality, and have your own interpretation of it. It's kind of an ego trip in a way.

[on not wanting to make mainstream Hollywood films anymore] Working with the Weinsteins was probably the moment where I said to myself, "How the fuck did I get here? What am I doing?" I did a movie called Senseless with David Spade and Marlon Wayans with the Weinsteins producing back in 1998. I was just finishing this movie and I said, "I don't want to do this anymore. I don't want to work in this movie business anymore." And as a matter of fact, that was that.

[being a female director] As a woman, when you do a movie that doesn't do well, then you're done. You're in director jail.