I certainly wasn't able to get it when I was a kid growing up on the Lower East Side; it was very hard at that time for me to balance what I really believed was the right way to live with the violence I saw all around me - I saw too much of it among the people I knew.

When I'm making a film, I'm the audience.

The storyboard for me is the way to visualise the entire movie in advance.

It's interesting that these themes of crime and political corruption are always relevant.

The only way I was able to defend myself was to be able to take punishment. Then I got a lot of respect. They said, "Oh, he's okay, he can take it. Don't hit him." The guys were pretty big, and I had asthma.

I didn't realize there are generations who do not know about the origins of film.

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