creativity and independent vision.

It's weird; I was not a really tough guy in high school, but I end up playing all of these psychopaths and criminals. I don't really care who they are, as long as they are complicated and going through something that I can understand and put across.

I don't tend to think of these characters as losers. I like the struggles that people have, people who are feeling like they don't fit into society, because I still sort of feel that way.

They're not thinking of how it's going to please a mass audience, ... They're really writing it for themselves, and trusting there's an audience out there for what they have to say. Whenever you make a film, there's always compromises you have to make just to get it made, but you really have to ask yourself, 'How much am I willing to compromise to get it up on screen?' and at what point do the compromises mean that you're not really making the movie you wanted to make.

In the beginning, it wasn't even a question of deciding I'm going to do independent film and not commercial films - I wasn't being offered any commercial films, and there wasn't an independent scene.

There's a certain type of character that you can't help but come in contact with growing up and living in Brooklyn and Long Island. A certain mixture of moxie, heart, and a wise guy sense of humor.