You have to put yourself in a situation, a lifestyle, that makes you do the work. Even if it's a monastery.

If your mother cooks Italian food, why should you go to a restaurant?

Basically, you make another movie, and another, and hopefully you feel good about every picture you make. And you say, 'My name is on that. I did that. It's OK.' But don't get me wrong, I still get excited by it all. That, I hope, will never disappear.

The most important thing is the script.

I grew up in the Lower East Side, an Italian American - more Sicilian, actually.

I'm trying to find out what the hell we - who we are.

Your job is to get your audience to care about your obsessions.