I optioned the magazine article. That was end of 2003. It was a time when the war was incredibly popular here and everyone was driving around with flags on their car, if you remember not too long ago.

Every 10 years, I know less about love and relationships. The smarter I get, the less I know.

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.

I like taking genres and subverting them. I did that with In the Valley of Elah. I said, "Okay, this is just a murder mystery. Relax." And then, two thirds of the way through, I broke every convention of a murder mystery.

As a general rule, I don't plan to travel with my Oscars, but we may have to make an exception.

A creative person has to believe in the unseen and the untouched.

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.