Now we really like to put people in boxes. As men, we do it because we don't understand characters that aren't ourselves and we aren't willing to put ourselves in the skin of those characters and women, I think, terrify us. We tend not to write women as human beings. It's cartoons we're making now. And that's a shame.

I just love actors, and I've always loved actors. I empathize with their job. Everyone thinks it's easy, and it ain't. To be that vulnerable and brave on camera is tough.

We think we know what's right. With excessive pride comes blindness.

I like to really respect the audience and let them come through on answers.

Usually the characters are where I start. Then I continually ask myself, 'What's the worst thing that could happen to this character?'

I really wanted to make a nonpolitical political film. I wanted something that folks in red states and blue states could look at and not ask if this is the right thing to do to be in this war, but what this war is doing to the fabric of our society.

You don't do pictures because the audience is ready for them. You do them because there's something gnawing at you, something inside.