I'm A New Yorker, You Know.

I Thought Rounders Was A Comic Movie In Its Way. First Time I Directed A Movie, I Wanted To Do A Comedy. I Don't Like Things That Are Superficially One Thing Or Another, Mainly. My Favorite Comedies Are Really Smart, Too, And Have A Lot Of Levels To Them As Well.

Remarkably, There's No Green Screen In 'leaves Of Grass' Movie. There Is Motion Control. Technically, There Were All Sorts Of Challenges, But Really The Soul Of It Is Edward Norton Talent. You Write These Characters When You Write A Movie, And All You Can Hope For Or Depend On Is That Your Actors Will Elevate The Material.

Well, I Don't Feel That I've Played So Many Bad Guys, And I'm Rot Really Drawn To Villains Per Se. I Think A Lot Of People Relate To Some Of My Characters' Inner Struggles.

As An Actor, If You Step To The Side And You Look At [thornton's Performance] Technically, And You Try To Imagine Doing What He Was Doing, Most People Would Panic. Most People Would Be On The Set, And They Would Be Panicking, Going, "i'm Not Doing Anything!" All The Ham Instincts In You Would Be Screaming, "you've Got To Indicate Something Here." And It's Beautiful, In A Way. And So I Appreciate, Even As An Audience Member, The Courage That It Takes To Be... Frankly, To Be Subtle.

When You're Working On A Creative Thing, Everyone Has An Idea, And They're Pushing It. The First Time You Work With Anybody, You Have To Get Comfortable With The Way Another Person Pushes Hard For What They Want. Familiarity Breeds Contempt, People Say. But I've Found, For Creative Things, Familiarity Breeds Peace Of Mind, Because You Realize You Know Someone Better. You Trust Each Other. You Know Not To Take Things A Certain Way, Or A Wrong Way. You Get To Where You Don't Have To Waste Quite So Much Time With Diplomacy. Things Are A Little More Efficient.