My older sister was at the cusp of new wave and I had older brothers from my father’s first marriage who were rock ‘n’ roll guys so I was exposed to a lot of popular culture.

My dad was this sort of avant-garde guy who did all kinds of weird things. He was a true original and anybody who met him never forgot him.

It felt like the first thing but when I first started out I got a job adapting a book by Russell Banks called ‘Rule Of The Bone.’ I didn’t do a very good job. I didn’t really know what I was doing in general let alone how to adapt a book.

I really subscribe to that old adage that you should never let the audience get ahead of you for a second. So if the film’s abrasive and wrongfoots people then y’know that’s great. But I hope it involves an audience.

I don’t get a sense of American pride. I just get a sense that everyone is here battling the same thing – that around the world everybody’s after the same thing just some minor piece of happiness each day.

I don’t think the competition’s so rough within the majority of movies made in Hollywood.

I had the standard movie geek childhood because for as long as I can remember all I wanted to do was make movies.

I have a feeling one of those gut feelings that I’ll make pretty good movies the rest of my life.