I think Hollywood sees so many parts of America through a very narrow prism. The South is no exception. And those stereotypes, while sometimes true, are exaggerated for me to the point of boredom.

My heroes are Robert Duvall, Forest Whitaker, Ed Harris, Tommy Lee Jones, Anthony Hopkins and Sean Penn.

I listen to music cinematically. I think about music and how it would make me feel when it's put to an image, a moving image, and I love it.

Sadly, in this country - maybe this is in the history of the world, really - it's the urban experience versus the bucolic experience. And it is different, but therein lies the slow progression of democracy. We are a melting pot.

Art is not created in a vacuum. That experience is something to be shared with a group of people, and to be moved in that way.

The life of a character doesn't just exist between action and cut.

The guy who kills 38 people is not the guy you'd want to have over at Thanksgiving.