I'm a huge Woody Allen fan. Good movie, bad movie, it doesn't matter - I just like his movies.

I think life's an irrational obsession.

I'll tell you what I probably would prefer to happen less and less: actors that I know and respect in shampoo ads. Or modeling.

Whatever I was able to do with those experiences certainly contribute to whatever I'm able to do as a director. The corruption in that is that most of what I acted in the last 10 years was to steal film school time from these guys. Those were the people I thought I could learn from as a director.

In short form I'll say it was an approach to the family and to [author] Jon Krakauer that then led to me seeming to rise to the top of the heap of several filmmakers that were trying to get the rights. And by top of the heap I mean in terms of being somebody that was trusted to do it as they said they were going to attempt to do it and that this way of doing it would be something they would be willing to allow.

I don't see life as an opportunity to see how far you can go in the pursuit of pain, although I think I've challenged it a bit.

If you don’t vote, you don’t matter.