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

You get to use everything you learned in movie business. You talk to actors, if you do it right - and I haven't always done it right - you should be shaping the material all the time. And the other thing is, you get all the blame when you direct and it doesn't work. You get slammed. So that's another reason to know what you're making, why you're making it, and make it the way you want.

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

Even if people end up doing awful things, you can empathize with their motives when you know them. When you get to know the person, you can understand why they make those choices, even if they're bad. And oftentimes people do have good drives that are sympathetic and can even be seen as selfless and good-hearted.

I think that cable TV is a great venue to do something interesting.

Not to knock the people who've given me the opportunity; I appreciate all the opportunities I've gotten, but one of the things I think I really learned from the features I got to direct is that your job as a director is everything about the movie. It's to pick a story that's really worth making, and make sure that the basic components are there. You're not just a part of the team. You're really in charge, and the responsibility falls on you if all the components aren't there for a worthwhile film.

If you're committed enough, you can make any story work. I once told a woman I was Kevin Costner, and it worked because I believed it.