The only way I know as a director is to figure out what the film is about. And out of the theme and the sense of what the film is about, all those decisions start to make sense. But to find that truth within it, you have to limit your possibilities and limit your choices. That's where this visual language grows out of.

I was always writing about the connection between man and nature. I grew up in a neighborhood that was right on the beach, but the beach was not like a beach you would imagine - there was a lot of pollution. And the most magical thing to me as a kid was sea glass, so I wrote about that a lot.

At the end of Requiem all I wanted to do was get a DV camera and just do a small film. But then the hunger comes back.

I think I came to film-making through writing. I started to write, and people, teachers, responded to my writing.

Casting ethnic characters is a very hard thing to do, but it's important. It's also interesting.

You hear stories about directors using manipulation to get actors to do certain things, but I think when you're working with professional actors, it's all about trust. They can do anything you want, it's just a matter of them understanding what you're looking for, and the reason why.

I'm Godless. I've had to make my God, and my God is narrative filmmaking