You can imagine what it was like for me to actually be sitting in a room with matching typewriters, working under the tutelage of this guy I so admired, both as a filmmaker and as a man.

You can dress it up, but it comes down to the fact that a movie is only as good as its script.

I make that distinction only because I came to it strictly as someone who was just a lover of storytellers and cinematic storytellers.

I was never a critic.

Whereas to write, all you need is paper and an idea, so I felt that writing might be my stepping stone.

Now, grosses are listed in the newspapers and on television like it's a sporting event. It's ridiculous, because when you're watching a movie, unless you're an investor in the movie or a stockholder in the studio, what do you care how much it's grossing or how much it cost or any of that stuff?

In L.A. Confidential, it was great to surprise the audience with Guy Pearce and Russell Crowe - two Australian actors that they didn't know at all - and let people discover them through the course of the film.