That's the luck we have with making films in Europe. It's still, in some ways, a virgin territory for a lot of stories. It's funny to see people in 10-gallon hats somewhere in France or Switzerland. You think, "Wow, is this real?" You do it in Wyoming and it's redundant.

Directing, you have to put yourself in a certain state, it’s all about the energy you have and the energy you transmit to people, to the actors, to the crew. It’s peculiar. There’s a Chinese saying: “The first part that rots is the head.” It really does. I’ve seen it.

Editing is a very tough period. You're confronted with yourself. It's a deep, dark, truthful mirror.

Directing, you have to put yourself in a certain state, it's all about the energy you have and the energy you transmit to people, to the actors, to the crew. It's peculiar.

The great thing about Europe is that things have not been represented [as much]. If you open the door of a bar in Brooklyn in a film you know exactly who is the mobster, who is the nice guy, who is the drunk, who's the waitress, who's the lonely heart. If you push open the door to a bar in Antwerp or Lisbon or Rotterdam, people will talk five different languages. You don't know who's who. You don't know if that guy is a banker or a mobster.

Things [only] exist once they are represented.

I wanted to direct when I was very young. I had no idea of cinema, of who's doing what. That was my first instinct: "Okay, I want to be the boss."