You have to be a brat in order to carve out your parameters, and you have to be a monster to anyone who gets in your way. But sometimes it's difficult to know when that's necessary and when you're just being a baby, throwing your rattle from the cage.

I am always looking for that nuance, that moment of truth, and you can't really do that fast.

I'm completely aware of the fact that I'm a control freak.

So with 'There Will Be Blood,' I didn't even really feel like I was adapting a book. I was just desperate to find stuff to write.

No matter how many times you do it, you don't get used to the sadness - for me at least - of coming to the end of a film.

I always had a dream about trying to make a movie that had no dialogue in it, that was just music and pictures. I still haven't done it yet, but I tried to get close in the beginning.

There’s a lot for screenwriters to steal from songwriters, in terms of getting to the point.