“Everything is stressful, low budget or high budget. It doesn’t matter. Everything induces stress and causes aging as a director. I finally had to stop. You know, the stress became overwhelming. On “Ghosts of Mars,” I was exhausted. That was the big thing. I remember seeing a behind-the-scenes [featurette], and it showed me on set working, sitting in the scoring session. God, I’d aged. Tired and ancient. And I thought, I can’t do this anymore. It was too rough. For me, it became not worth it. And I didn’t want to say that about movies. Movies are my first love, my life. “
— John Carpenter on retiring from directing