All my life, I never really felt comfortable anywhere in New York, except maybe in an apartment somewhere.

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

Well the thing is that the New York of 1846 to 1862 was very different from downtown New York now. Really nothing from that period still exists in New York.

I tried for about two semesters in a preparatory seminary. But I was about 15 and didn't fully understand what a vocation means.

When I was growing up, I don't remember being told that America was created so that everyone could get rich. I remember being told it was about opportunity and the pursuit of happiness. Not happiness itself, but the pursuit.

Working with HBO was an opportunity to experience creative freedom and 'long-form development' that filmmakers didn't have a chance to do before the emergence of shows like 'The Sopranos.'

If it's a modern-day story dealing with certain ethnic groups, I think I could open up certain scenes for improvisation, while staying within the structure of the script.