It's not palm trees and neon signs in Florida; it's strip malls, highways, hot sun beating down on you.

You do what you believe in.

We're all always wondering about our own limits, what we're capable of.

Any sympathy won for Aileen Wuornos based on a lie is not sympathy at all. The question is, can we have sympathy for the circumstances of someone's life? That's what I was interested in.

Making a movie is such a huge commitment of emotion and time that I didn't want to be beholden to doing it for money.

My father was a fighter pilot, so I moved around the world when I was young. Then I ended up in Kansas.

I'd just sort of gravitated toward the arts, and I had always loved music and really loved theater, even though I didn't want to act. For some reason, being in Kansas, you can either be a graphic artist or a visual artist, so I decided, 'I guess I'm going to be a painter.'

I've been influenced by a lot of films. And a lot of them are the typical interesting, artsy films. But I haven't talked enough about how there are those few big blockbusters that really rock your world.

Superhero movies are so famous because of the metaphor that they trigger in one's self about who you could be if things were different.

To be a director, you need to be reliable, on time, confident, calm, all of those things you see demonstrated in the military.

I want to make great films in my lifetime, and I really want to make a great film about Wonder Woman.

Being the person who gets to make a movie about Wonder Woman, of course, I take that incredibly seriously. I am a huge Wonder Woman fan, and the aspiration comes totally naturally to me.

Who should make a great movie about Wonder Woman? It should be somebody who loves Wonder Woman. And I know that I'm that. So let's go and try.

A woman doesn't have to direct a woman's film and a man doesn't have to direct a man's film; otherwise, where would we be?

There's an idea that action movies are more attractive to one gender than the other or different kinds of people or whatever. The truth is action is not any different than any other part of a story.

I remember when I read in the news that 'Wonder Woman' had been cast, and my heart sank. I had been talking to the studio for so long about doing it, and I was like, 'Well, 'that's that.' I'm sure we wouldn't have made the same choice.

I don't think I focused on the financial part of it, but definitely, my ambition is to be great, and that always meant that the sky was the limit for what I was hoping to do.

I was thinking I would love to make something that is a successful film that everybody sees, but I wasn't thinking about the actual dollar amount. I just wanted to make a great film that people responded to. That's always a good ambition because you'll never totally hit it.

I think you need to have a strong vision of your own.

We want to teach a better way and to be a hero, and there's no one like Wonder Woman to do it.

I can't take on the history of 50 percent of the population just because I'm a woman.

I grew up in a family of fighter pilots, and I have a real kindred spirit to that kind of fast-moving aggression and momentum.

It's like there's something very maternal about Wonder Woman: when push comes to shove, if nobody else wants to do it, Wonder Woman would step up and take care of business. But she doesn't want to do it, and she would never take any delight in it. That's Wonder Woman to me.

I don't think I could have made a good movie out of 'Thor 2' because I wasn't the right director. And I don't think I would have been in the running for 'Wonder Woman' as a result. And that's one of the reasons why I'm glad I didn't do it.

I think that in superhero movies, they fight other people; they fight villains.

There's a lot of mythological stories you can tell. There's not just one. I appreciate all of those different kinds, but what I was personally missing was grand, classic, true-north hero. Pure and simple emotion, and also aiming for big time emotion, like love story as well, in a very sincere way. Like 'Superman: The Movie' had done for me.

To me, the two things that Gal Gadot - who is an amazing actress, and she played a great Wonder Woman - but the true things that she actually has inside of her are this incredible warmth and charm that is also informed by great intelligence. It's those two things.

I had an interesting moment with 'Wonder Woman' where, when I first thought about doing 'Wonder Woman 2,' I thought, 'Well, these are so intense, making these movies. It's a lot to think about doing more.' But then I had an epiphany, and I thought, 'Oh, it's not more - it's better.'

To make a masterpiece would be my life's dream.

I grew up in a bit of a feminist fantasy with a single mom. I was totally shielded, in a way, from an idea that I couldn't do something.

It is ironic you could make an animated film about a dog that's a universal character, but God forbid it be a human being who is not a man.

The idea of getting to make a movie like the ones that impacted me as a child is my life's dream.

I'm making a movie about Wonder Woman, who I love, who to me is one of the great superheroes, so I just treated her like a universal character, and that's what I think is the next step when I think you can do that more and more and when studios have the confidence to do that more and more.

I've had tragedy in my life, and it doesn't stop comedy, so I think it's important to do both. Particularly in a superhero movie, but in any movie that accesses all people. Nobody wants to be abused for two hours.

The education of going through the 'Thor' experience was great.

I am super-comfortable with powerful women.

If you look at the history of Wonder Woman, you look at the iconography, the images that have kept her alive - they're not dark. The thing I think is so important to always keep in mind about her is how positive and bright and shiny she is - very much in the same way that Superman has been.

I don't love all superhero films, but I love a great one.

I believe in Wonder Woman and the true spirit of Wonder Woman, and I wanted to tell that story. I didn't want to make her an alt version of Wonder Woman.

I think that what Wonder Woman stands for is gorgeous and incredible.

Ultimately, so many things come down to money, but particularly when it comes to superheroes - people really thought that only men loved action movies and only men would go see a superhero movie.

I did not necessarily feel that Hollywood was interested in what I wanted to do. They wanted me to do what they wanted to do.

I have passed on a lot of things that would have been extremely lucrative, because they were nothing else.

I love that duality of Wonder Woman: that she both wants peace and means peace, but when push comes to shove and someone needs to be put down like a dog, that's what she would be willing to do.

The thing about 'Wonder Woman,' which is very feminine and definitely different, is that her objective is to bring love and truth to mankind.

I have a high bar for myself already; I always want to do something beautiful and meaningful.

There was a movie I was trying to make right after 'Monster,' a bigger behemoth: the Chuck Yeager story. It was a life dream, but it just didn't line up. We just had issues with the life rights, ultimately.

If you want more diversity in the industry, you need diverse people writing scripts and developing them.

I'm as interested in exceptional characters as men are.

TV is really hard to break into. This may be the worst piece of advice, but make an independent film. TV oftentimes takes people who are established. The great benefit of not breaking in yet is purity of voice.