With acting, if a friend asked me to be in a movie or TV show, there's a lot of things on my résumé I did without reading them or knowing what they were. I just said I'd do that because a friend wrote it, directed, produced, acted in it. With directing, I'm sticking to my guns, not that a lot of people are begging me to direct.

You say you're going to be the pope, become the pope.

In acting, you're only responsible for your part. When you're directing, the load is on your shoulders, so you have to feel a strong connection to the material. It's a higher bar to get over.

My godfather was a Chicago policeman, and I've always looked at law enforcement as a challenging and interesting job.

You can't guarantee that you'll make a great movie, but you can make a greater effort than I made at trying to see that the basics are there.

The worst thing is to read bad reviews and go, "Yeah, I agree."

It's fun to discover things. I wouldn't want everything laid out, simply and too obviously.