Part of filmmaking is always a guessing game, and part of it is always a game of trust.

I was a halfback on an American football team in Athens, Greece - the Kississia Colts - where I went to high school, and we took the Cup my senior year. The downside, and somewhat unfortunate piece of information I have to pass on, is there were only two teams in the league because of the limited amount of Americans.

The tragic element of a character is always intriguing I think.

When I was a kid, I was obsessed with this idea of opening a restaurant back in Indiana on a little pond. The guests would order their dinner and then take a little boat out with a colored flag on the front of it. When the matching color of the flag on their boat went up on a flag pole, their dinner was ready!

I don't think there's any connection between my journalism career and my film career. They are two totally different mediums and very different skills.

When I look back on my childhood, I think of that short time in Beirut. I know that seeing the city collapse around me forced me to grasp something many people miss: the fragility of peace.

I'm happy to report that everybody whose face I've wanted to punch on Earth has already been punched.