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

I write from my stomach.

It felt like the first thing, but when I first started out, I got a job adapting a book by Russell Banks called 'Rule Of The Bone.' I didn't do a very good job. I didn't really know what I was doing in general, let alone how to adapt a book.

My writing has a lot to do with who I am, and what my life is like, and my relationships to people.

But I'd be lying if I didn't say that every time you go to make a film, you're desperate to either do it better than you did it last time or to not repeat yourself.

The films that I love are very straightforward stories, like really old-fashioned stuff.

I don't get a sense of American pride. I just get a sense that everyone is here, battling the same thing - that around the world everybody's after the same thing, just some minor piece of happiness each day.