I won't even think about acting in a role where I didn't do a back story for a character.

To me, America is just another market.

Particularly as a writer, it is my job to ignore social critics, or the response that social critics might have when it comes to the opinions of my characters, the way they talk, or anything that can happen to them.

When people ask me if I went to film school I tell them, 'no, I went to films.'

I am a genre lover - everything from spaghetti western to samurai movie.

There is no other genre that deals with America better, in a subtextual way, than the Westerns being made in the different decades. The '50s Westerns very much put forth an Eisenhower idea of America, whereas the Westerns of the '70s were very cynical about America.

It's very important that every movie I do makes money because I want the people that had the faith in me to get their money back.