Any film that you make, it's a very high end game of musical chairs ... but that's just the nature of filmmaking. You do the dance with a certain actor.
I think when you write a script, you can't help but pick up on what is happening in the press at that time and what's going on in the newspapers, so you reflect on that and you feed it into your stories in some way.
I think writing is one of the toughest things.
Directing is for pussies.
I get ill when I'm writing because I'm so focused on it, and it can take a year or two. Often, I knock out the first draft very quickly. I can do it in five to six weeks. Then, it takes a year of rewriting it and rewriting it.
You can't make a sculpture until you've got a lump of rock.