The thing that's very close in the process is writing and acting, not directing. Directing's very different.

I don't see myself as a different guy than I was ten years ago. I don't have aspirations to be. It's really about where you're putting your energies. That's changing a lot.

There is no re-inventing the wheel.

I don't think you can get away with putting your talents in a toilet bowl and not having them flushed away. Forever. There is a level of murder of one's soul and of the culture that they're supposed to be feeding vitamins to.

I'm not a breakfast eater.

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.

When I was growing up and somebody like Robert De Niro had a movie come out, it was a cultural event. Because he had such a confidence and a single mission that was so intimate.