I think as a gay person, there was no way in my generation to not grow up with shame and a sense of being wrong. It was impossible to avoid. Externally, you might make choices that are very public and very open but internally that was a struggle.

By 1988, I was living in New York myself.

For me, an actor is really, first and foremost, a person and an individual, more than they are an actor or a professional.

I try not to articulate ideas in the film once I've arrived on the plot and the characters. I believe that if I focus my attention with enough compassion and heart on those things, then other things will be revealed, and that's from the education that I've had from the novel.

I think my movie addresses the struggles of communities facing class distinctions, which are timeless. The questions of how we live together and what we do for money are really the stuff of drama.

You are always factoring in the economy within the process of creating something, and making decisions that seem both fearless and full of fear.

All history is defined by shifting modes of reality and time and how things change. That’s what I love about cinema. It changes in the moment.