Steven Spielberg & the Next Crusade

Spielberg says this emphatically.

Q: What was the hardest movie to make?

A: "Schindler's List" was certainly the most emotionally devastating experience I've had -- and not only the production but the postproduction and having to view the images we achieved over and over and over again.

Q: You filmed scenes at the gates of the real Auschwitz.

A: It was actually harder to visit than to shoot there.

Q: Why?

A: Whenever I looked at the gates of Auschwitz at 2 in the morning, and chills ran down my spine, all I had to do is look at the familiar, which is the craft of filmmaking -- our electricians on ladders putting up the lights and the grip department laying dolly track and extras being made up -- which for me is a safety zone. Whereas tourists who go have no safety blanket, just the dark reality of the place and the doubly stark proposition that this could happen again easily.

Q: Not too long ago, I read that you used the words "before I retire . . ."?

A: I was being glib when I said that. I don't have any retirement plans. I couldn't imagine not directing. When I watch Clint Eastwood at 70-something years old doing some of his best work in the last two years -- of his whole career. When I see him achieving his personal best over the last three movies -- with "Mystic River," "Million Dollar Baby" and "Flags of Our Fathers" -- it just gives me hope. I think directors are working longer than they ever did before, and the directors continue to stay in touch with their audience. One would think they'd lose their communication skills. But it's your body that grows old. Your mind and your heart stay as young as you can imagine.