There's something about knowing life is finite that makes it so precious.

The more kind of head trippy sci-fi. I always like that. I was a big 'Twilight Zone' freak.

It was never in my dreams to make my personal life anybody else's business.

I did this movie right after it about the life of Chet Baker. It's called Born to Be Blue. In that situation, there's a real clear character you're drawing on. It's a real person. It's really exciting and interesting to do the research to figure out how to make that a nuanced, three-dimensional human being.

If you study the history of mankind, it seems to be a history of violence. Certainly the history of art, whether you look at paintings or movies or plays or whatever, is just a litany of murder and death.

If you don't give inspiration an opportunity, it will never arrive.

I've always been drawn to the best writing that I can find. I don't care if it's in movies or theater or whatever - if you want to be in front of an audience, you have to do writing you believe in.