“I think, in some ways, that is the balm of stories, of fables, of tale...” — Debra Granik Quote

I think, in some ways, that is the balm of stories, of fables, of tales: it's the way we're wired. We have always needed to distill what we're going through and try to understand it by looking either backwards or forwards. And the hardest is to look in the now.

I'm reaching for emotion and drama, the drama of the everyday: what happens when you don't have shelter, food, and clothing. There are some stakes. If you're displaced or evicted, there's a suspense: How will you solve that?

I have, obviously, a very complex relationship with the more industrial side of filmmaking and the machinery that can take an actor or an actress and create something so bamboozling and monumental and fathomless in terms of publicity hits.

There are so many American experiences that we can't know about unless we venture out to create a dialogue, to observe, ask questions, and stay there for a while.

I'm not going backwards in this sport ever, especially in pay. Why would I?

I wanted to do a corkscrew moonsault backwards, so I had the idea of doing it forwards like the shooting star corkscrew, and I was aware no one else did that in wrestling. If I could perfect this technique, it would be unique to me.

I don't want to be the guy who's 50-something years old sitting in front of a microphone with my beard dyed black and my hat on backwards, yo-yo-yoing.

My hours get kinda backwards. Most of the time, we're basing out of one town, flying out, doing the show, then flying back. And it's a pace that no one would believe, really. Unless you've done it, you really can't understand what it is. And if you're not really experienced and know how to do it, you will fall.