I think I land somewhere between Scorsese and Capra in what I'm drawn to emotionally; I'm drawn to very intense emotion. Capra freaked people out when they saw Jimmy Stewart lose it in 'It's a Wonderful Life.

When most people turn on their TVs, they don't expect a frank discussion of philosophical ideas in their practical context. Or any context.

Christianity has been responsible for plenty of horror and death in the world, all supposedly in God's name.

I just love real characters; they're not pretentious, and every emotion is on the surface, they're regular working people. Their likes, their dislikes, their loves, their hates, their passions; they're all right there on the surface.

There's nothing better than an actor who is really, really hungry to show everything they've got.

I suppose what I like about Zen is that the teachers are constantly questioning your insight and challenging it, looking for sloppiness or laziness in it, and ways you can go past that.

You learn by trying and failing. Just a lot of hard work and mistakes.