[Ryan Gosling] just got by because he's a cute kid? Yeah. I was an ugly kid; "The Mickey Mouse Club" wasn't for me.

I think everybody wants to be their own person and be an individual.

I really want to have a really, really strong, one-sided opinion on something, and be connected to it and tell that story. Until I find that thing or that topic or whatever it is, I don't want to direct.

Father-daughter relationship, is something that I think is so unique and it can't really be explained unless you have a daughter.

You see somebody like me, as young as I was at the time, driving around the inner city of Newark, and to them [police] it doesn't make sense. I've been illegally searched [and had] my car illegally searched. [I've] been handcuffed for no reason. You get in enough of those situations.

My mother's in my life, but at the time you imagine your mom passing away, not being there ... as a kid you try to think of something that hurts you the most ... It was just a tool [in "Hardball"].

I encourage first time filmmakers to be ambitious and take chances and risks, because you never know where your career is going to go.