You obviously can't cast Brad [Pitt] as an everyman guy because he just brings way too much baggage.

Masculine ideals have become very confused in the modern world.

I always feel that crime films are about capitalism.

The crime film is the most honest American film.

Jesse James is like a Leonard Cohen song, I wanted to do something that was like a pop song.

Americans are not renowned for having a sense of irony.

It's a wonderful thing to go to work and have no idea what you're going to do.

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

Obviously, a power player in a criminal organization doesnt have to persuade anyone. He can just do what he wants.

I'm sure part of the fascination with the film is voyeuristic - that we go to see somebody who's been struck by lightning.

I think the film gives you a picture of a person. It gives you a complete picture.

I know of no evil that ever existed, nor can imagine any evil to exist, worse than the tearing of seventy or eighty thousand persons every year from their own land.

I hope that I serve by being a teacher.

What I know is that I am honest about my films, and my films are honest about reality. The stories themselves dictate the way that they should be told.

The earth neither grows old or wears out if it is dunged.

If the fools do not control the world, it isn't because they are not in the majority.

I want to spend more time with my family.

I really like when people do 'stream of consciousness' tweeting, or when people's tweets come across as sort of manic and mostly unedited.

Be as good to yourself as you are to those you love.

Already this war on gangs in California is taking money from universities to build prisons, and the universities have some clout.