Every little thing that people know about you as a person impedes your ability to achieve that kind of terrific suspension of disbelief that happens when an audience goes with an actor and character he's playing.

I never think that a film should answer questions for you. I think it should make you ask a lot of questions.

Screenplays aren't written to be read, they're written to be made into movies.

The more you do your homework, the more you're free to be intuitive. But you've got to put the work in.

The more you can create that magic bubble, that suspension of disbelief, for a while, the better.

Any questions I had about whether a redneck from Oklahoma could become a Brown Classical Philosophy professor ended when I met Tim [Blake Nelson].

When people come together too young, they try to become one person. As you get older, you realize that you don't want to become one person because then you lose the person you are.