Sometimes you do complete run-throughs of scenes, sometimes you break scenes down into little bits. It just depends on what the actors like to do. It's almost like jamming.

Sometimes you see a movie and you can really feel that it's an actor putting in a performance. Someone said 'cut' and they're back in their trailer having a coffee or getting their hair done.

There's been about 75 movies about Jesse James, and I've seen about four of them. He's usually portrayed as this plucky rebel who's got no choice but to turn to crime, because the railway's hassling his mother. But he wasn't like that.

To me, regardless of who's in office, the government is strangled by business. And the government's priorities are dictated by business. I mean, why does America, even after healthcare reform, still not have free universal healthcare? I'm sure it has something to do with the insurance lobby.

When you ask a bunch of people to see a film, and then invite them to comment on it and tell them it's a work-in-progress, they feel bound to offer an opinion.

A lot of writing's going down dead ends that don't go anywhere.

Actors have either got to play something that's close to them, or something that's the complete opposite.

America's moved so much of its production and manufacturing offshore, it's become a nation of middlemen.

Americans are not renowned for having a sense of irony.

Crime is a job and it's boring. It's also unpleasant.

Everybody is always trying to make the best movie they can. It's a process.

I don't know whether crime is dictating business or business is dictating crime.

I don't think human beings have changed in 2,000 years.

I like test screenings. I like to see a movie with an audience of strangers. I think it tells you a lot.

I write a number of screenplays, and I've never really come up with a part for a movie star.

It seems like women don't want men to be men anymore. They want men to be women. But they really don't want what they say they want. It's very weird.

Masculine ideals have become very confused in the modern world.

Obviously, a power player in a criminal organization doesn't have to persuade anyone. He can just do what he wants.

When men organize themselves into groups, and they make rules based on common or self-interest, it's always tangled and political.

Actors look for characters. If they read a well-written character, and if they think the director's not an idiot, they're going to sign up and do some acting.