People want to classify and say, 'OK, this is a gangster film.' 'This is a Western.' 'This is a... ' You know? It's easy to classify and it makes people feel comfortable, but it doesn't matter, it doesn't really matter.

There's a way that the force of disappointment can be alchemized into something that will paradoxically renew you.

I was rather shaken by all the green trees. I always am. It gets me. I don't want to be funny about it but I am. I loved seeing all the westerns, but I had asthma and couldn't go anywhere, but I loved watching them in Technicolor and seeing the cowboys and the landscapes of Monument Valley and you'd see the forests of the Anthony Mann films and think, 'wow, that's fantastic', but I could never go there!

A lot of what I'm obsessed with is the relationship and the dynamics between people and the family, particularly brothers and their father.

Vic Armstrong is, of course, a legend

Alcohol decimated the working class and so many people.

There was always a part of me that wanted to be an old-time director. But I couldn't do that. I'm not a pro.