The thing about The Departed, the x-factor that people can't quite put their finger on, is that it deals clearly with class and accent all these things that are fundamental to Boston, but previously anomalous or even prohibited in demotic American films.

In all honesty a gangster picture was the easiest kind of film for me to get made.

I have a lot of stuff that I never published because I always had a sense that novels were not finally going to be the way I made my living, because the form was dying commercially.

I hate doing anything in offices. I either want to be out in the world or in my own environment - and it should be your own environment that you work in.

Wisdom is not having illusions, especially anything in your own mind that elevates you above others.

I don't think the latest Star Wars pictures have any artistic intentions, but the original picture opened up epic science fiction.

There's only one way to prep, so far as I know. You have your script, you hire the people you want, you find your locations and your setups, everybody shows up and you shoot the film.