One recurring theme in your films is loneliness – not in the American sense, as in a bad thing. It’s a loneliness of choice. A spaghetti Western kind of loner. Does that reflect your own preference?
That’s a good question. I have a lot of friends, and I like hanging out with individuals and cliques of friends. Like I was hanging was out with Sofia Coppola and her friends recently, while all this ‘‘Lost in Translation’’ stuff has been going on. It was a nice distraction, so I wasn’t so self-obsessed about [’‘Kill Bill’’]. It’s always fun to be in love with someone else’s movie; I’d rather talk about other people’s movies than mine.
But as much as I like that, I am a loner. If you’re an only child and grow up by yourself, you get comfortable with your own company. I can have a great time reading or watching movies or listening to music by myself. I like going places and seeing things through another person’s eyes, but I also like seeing them from my own eyes too.
You’re now in your 40s, and you’ve suddenly got kids in your movies.
Yeah, and they’re just as violent as everyone else [laughs]. I can honestly say that I don’t think all that baby stuff would have been in ‘‘Kill Bill’’ if I hadn’t written the part for Uma. We are best friends, and when I was writing the script it was a good excuse to hang out with her. And if you hang out with Uma, you’re going to hang out with her daughter Maya. It was the most I’d ever been in close proximity with a [then-4-year-old] girl, and we had a wonderful connection. I love her, and now I have a connection with Uma’s son, Levon. I’ve known him his entire life. He likes me because of the way I talk with my hands [laughing].
Do you think about having kids?
Oh yeah, totally. Actually, the truthful answer to that is that Maya made me want to have kids. [She] also showed me that I would be a really good father.
Was turning 40 hard for you?
No, it wasn’t hard. I couldn’t be doing better than I’m doing. I could not be doing more than I want to do. The privileges I have are vast. I’ve got all the money I could ever need. I mean, I’m not talking grandiose, but just to live like Elvis Presley on crack, all right? Also, I hate working, so I’ll never have to work for a living again.
You hate working except for making movies…
Exactly. But I never want to have to WORK at movies. I never have to make a movie to pay for my pool or to reposition myself in Hollywood. I can make a movie when I mean it. I have a really fortunate position in this industry. I am actually allowed via both the success I’ve had in the past and my relationship with Miramax, and particularly with Harvey and Bob Weinstein – I am able to truly, in this town, live the life of an artist.
You’ve been quoted as saying that you’ve created an infallible career, that you don’t fear anything. There’s got to be something that scares you artistically or career-wise.
I’m not afraid of this, but I am taking precautions: I don’t want to be an old director. A lot of the ['70s] movie brats have gotten old and it shows in their work, and I don’t want that. And I’m not picking on them because you go back 100 years and directors don’t get better as they get older. I really do think directing is a young man’s game. I want all of my films to be good. Look, there might very well come a time where, you know, as you get older your interests change, you have older interests. Not everything has to be so visceral or kinetic. If I say Martin Scorsese’s movies are getting kind of geriatric and everything, he can say, F— you, man! I’m doing what I want to do, I’m following my muse, and he’s 100 percent right. I’m in my church praying to my god and he’s in his church praying to his. There was a time we were in the same church, and I miss that. I don’t want to go to that church. If I was going to that church, I would write novels.
So how do you imagine Quentin Tarantino, boy wonder, at 60?
I won’t be making movies, that’s for sure. I’ll write novels. Novelistic writing is great for someone at that age. But I also want to get some movie theaters. I’ve got a big film collection and I want to continue building on it. I’m kind of a frustrated theater owner anyway. I want to have a good life and let the filmography stand on its own. I don’t want to be some old guy pitching f—ing scripts.
