When things aren't working out, screenwriters have a tendency to say, "Go do other things," but you shouldn't do other things. You need to stay at your desk and continue to try to write. You need to insist on it.

The cinema that interests me departs from realism.

Do we root for Michael Corleone in the 'Godfather' films? I think so, even if he is a monster.

Used properly, cinema is the coolest thing in the world.

The cinema, as literature, as all the plastic arts, do not exist outside of a critical system that allows us to study them.

When things aren't working out, we have a tendency to say, 'Go do other things,' but you shouldn't do other things. You need to stay at your desk and continue to try to write. You need to insist on it.

An archetypal gangster is always at a remove. We can't get into his mindset.