When you find theater writing like in the theater on film but it's realistic, it doesn't matter who the character is, you want to do it.

You run your plays, you know your plays, you study your plays, you study the other team, you do as much as you can, you go to practice, you get in shape, you do what you need to do, and then by the time you get to the game, you know your plays, but they have to feel like they're in your bones. That has to be an unconscious thing, it cannot be conscious. That is everything to me.

I think I work as hard as I do now, because of a lot of lessons I've learned early on.

When I was 19, I thought [Brokeback Mountain] was going to be the best movie ever made. And everyone was going to see it and it was just going to be incredible. And then nobody saw it and it didn't get bought at Sundance. And it was a really great experience. Humbling. And then it's since found its way.

Sometimes what I actually love to do is go to a farm and get fresh milk or watch a pig get slaughtered.

I have an overactive brain, and as a result of that, I can really get in my own mind. So I like to try and exercise it to the point of exhaustion.

I like the conscious manipulation that a great director can have. When you're both complicit in the manipulation of an emotion.