I try not to think of actors as I'm writing because I think you do them a disservice by writing for things they've already done.

The radical rightwing pegs Hollywood as a leftist town, which is completely wrong. There are a lot of actors, writers, and directors who talk a liberal agenda... but all the studio bosses, for as long as there have been studios, have all been as far rightwing as you can possibly imagine.

Always write from your gut, no matter what the project is.

What happens when these young men and women come home so scarred and so wounded? We are ignoring that fact. We're just shoving them under the carpet.

We all have these tendencies in us that could go this way or that. I think that's the real key in writing. To look at a character without judgment.

I wanted to do a political film that is as nonpartisan as can be, because I wanted to do a story that was American. I wanted to tell an American tragedy.

The stereotypes we pretend that we reject are ingrained in our DNA.