TV is a safe place to develop real characters.

TV has no choice, but to rely on character, and everybody knows that. I love working in it. It's such a big canvas where, if you're successful, you go on for years.

I pride myself on doing character-driven movies and, when my movies have worked, it's been because of the right casting and the right character, and it just clicks.

The movie I end up with is the movie I aspired to make.

If I'm not in love with the script, there's nothing. It doesn't matter what you give me. It has to start with the script.

I think making a great action movie is one of the hardest cinematic endeavors. By definition, smart characters avoid action. Smart people don't go down dark alleys, but if you're making an action movie and you want to have an action sequence, somehow you have to get that character into that dangerous situation.

I realize I am contradictory: I have an independent filmmaker's sensibility and a Hollywood director's short-attention span.