I prefer film to TV because of the amount of time film affords you that TV doesn't (though theater is probably my favorite and the scariest place of all).

I'm trying to steal from everybody. So yeah, there's cats that I'm personally affiliated with - Carl Franklin, Paul Thomas Anderson - and others that I don't know personally but their work I'm a big admirer of, like Martin Scorsese. But I'm hoping to come up with a language that is mine, that's specific to my take on this material.

Speak up when you're supposed to, as opposed to trying to write prescriptions for the way people should live.

We're not talking about you scored more points than me and I know that you won and I lost, those are clear results. This is about people's opinions and their subjective takes on things, people that sometimes haven't seen all of the movies they're voting on.

The best thing that I learned from the best directors that I worked with is that the best answer wins. They are ego-less when it comes to doing the most important thing.

If anyone ever said biopic I would say, "It's not a biopic." We're fighting uphill against the weight of history. I was like, why don't we just call it historical fiction?

I think that it's much more important to do than to say. And you learn that a lot from your kids, who are watching you, you know?