My creative partner is a writer, and he's got an executive producing credit on this film. We've made three films together and I would never underestimate the impact of a writer.

The director's job should give you a sense of music without drawing attention to itself.

Look at Walter Huston in The Devil and Daniel Webster: It's an incredible performance.

But a writer's contribution is literary and a film is not literary. When you take that stuff off the page, and cast the people who are going to fit into those roles, that's what being a director is.