I've written plenty of scripts that sucked.

Aristotle wrote the 'Poetics' 2,400 years ago. It's really an instruction manual for aspiring filmmakers. It's as valid today as it was then.

Some people are in positions of power, and when incentives go haywire, we are all human and it's easy to make mistakes. I am not saying everybody is Bernie Madoff.

Writing and directing your own film, for me, has been the best experience of my life.

I spent 12 years doing different things in film trying to figure out the story I wanted to tell.

I loved films of the '70s with those antihero protagonists who you don't know if you can get behind because their behavior is really questionable.

I keep a list of everyone I've ever met.

Doing anything on a movie at Sundance is great.

My dad used to sell a type of commodity contract. It was so complicated, he was certain his sales people didn't understand what they were selling.

I think that ultimately any effective drama or tragedy tries to put you as much as it can into the protagonist's shoes.