Well, there's no question that a good script is an absolutely essential, maybe the essential thing for a movie.

I'm not a very good predictor in any area of art, particularly my own. I don't know how to evaluate that.

I mean, movies are like your kids or your fingers and toes or something, it's pretty hard to pick favorites.

Well, I was born and raised in the Midwest, in Indiana specifically, and my childhood was full of weekend movies, you know, the Saturday and Sunday popcorn movies.

Most human beings who are accustomed to attempting to see the world from various points of view tend to be more liberal than conservative. I have one life. I am a certain age. I'm married to one person. I have a certain number of children. I won't have another life other than that, but I do have many lives through the films. It's a way for me to understand what it's like to be a murderer, to confess, to be a beaten wife, to be a minority, to be a victor, to get the girl, to lose the girl. I can do all of that through the practice of an art form.

And I taught acting for years, and without knowing it that was the real thing that started bending me toward directing.

Well, there's no question that a good script is an absolutely essential, maybe the essential thing for a movie.