I make dark dramas, movies about people living in desperate fear who then overcome that fear and find a heroic side to themselves.

I was raised with a single mom and we had a very specific, very particular relationship. She worked with me and my job. I was almost three and we traveled everywhere together and she was really in my life in a really profound way. The most significant relationship of my life. It was beautiful and also an incredible, difficult struggle. I know how creative that life is, and how difficult it is to figure it out.

I love European movies and I kind of grew up on European films.

I am the luckiest filmmaker I know.

Normal is not something to aspire to, it's something to get away from.

I feel at various times in my life that I've been at a point where I had to choose between a death sentence and a life sentence. And I want to live. What do I do to live? What do I do to be vital? And the answer is always creativity.

I don't find acting and directing schizophrenic, in any way. I find it completely easy to move between the two.