The fantasy gives you the courage to feel things.

You obviously can't cast Brad [Pitt] as an everyman guy because he just brings way too much baggage.

I imagine that in a closed, hermetic society like the mob, where everybody knows each other, it must be really, really unpleasant to have to kill people. It's the sort of thing you really want to avoid.

Americans are not renowned for having a sense of irony.

It's very difficult to lie to yourself about certain things. I'm not necessarily convinced about how information is gathered and I don't think the credence that's given to it is valid.

As a filmmaker, it's important to sit there and feel embarrassed. If you feel embarrassed by something, you cut it.

It's obviously a lot more of a political undertaking making a movie in Hollywood and it's a business there. In Australia, they don't expect films to make money; whereas in America they're counting on it.