I think the greatest thing about making a documentary is your ability to just follow the story and the subject.
I find it easier to play someone who is so far from me because you create someone - you build this person based on the story and the script, with the director.
I don't believe there's two sides to every story. It's black and white. There's right and wrong.
When I was 3, my parents strapped on a pair of Playskool plastic roller skates to my feet, and that's where the story begins.
I think the job of writing and literature is to encourage each one of us to believe that we're living in a story.
For me as a storyteller, I want to follow the characters and the story through what they organically demand.
I generally write a first draft that's pretty lean. Just get the story down.
Don't assume that what we currently think is out there is the full story. Go after the dark matter, in whatever field you choose to explore.
I remember myself at 10 years old telling stories to my sisters and brother. This is something I did through my adolescence and even through my twenties.
When I'm writing the first draft, I'm writing in a very slovenly way: anything to get the outline of the story on paper.
What I really like doing is storytelling, finding the body language that is necessary for the story. And when I'm doing it and it's working, I'm thrilled.
But when I was a little kid, I was always writing stories and illustrating little books that I would create.
I can't impress enough upon people that if you tell an honest story that people relate to and people believe and invest in, you can do anything.
If you're not connected emotionally to a story, then you're dead. You're really just opening the door for people to lose interest and their minds to wander, for them to start picking it apart.
In general, I think you can watch a movie in two different ways. One is the ethical point of view, one is the point of view of the story.
I wanted to think about our creation myth; you know, what is the fundamental story that defines America. And it certainly is the West.
Authors are the closest thing man would come to understanding God. It is a remarkable thing to conjure up a life and create its story.
Making sentences is what I do. I mean, the story will come as I write.
Some people are like cats - if they're dropped upside down, they land on their feet. I get a little irritated about stories like that.
But the first published thing I did was a detective story, detective novel, and I did that on my own.
Conservative talk radio works because there are lots of conservatives who are convinced that they are not getting the whole story from the regular media.
