There are characters in movies who I call 'film characters.' They don't exist in real life. They exist to play out a scenario. They can be in fantastic films but they are not real characters what happens to them is not lifelike.

I'm trying to figure myself out through my movies. Whether it's big stuff like what we're doing here or little stuff like 'Why aren't I happier?' With every film I feel like I'm apologising for something. I feel I'm most successful when I'm looking for something that embarrasses me about my character that I'd like to expose.

I like the idea of movies having a magic element. How many times have you seen an actor in a movie who you know only as the character? It's wonderful isn't it?

My favorite characters are the ones that are the most successful movies.

Most movies once the action starts there's no more characters. You say a couple of dumb lines and then there's just explosions until the end.

What I remember when I started to write was how I couldn't wait to get up in the morning to get to my characters.

When you have to get into the character each morning give it your voice your face it was torture.

I started writing morning pages just to keep my hand in you know just because I was a writer and I didn't know what else to do but write. And then one day as I was writing a character came sort of strolling in and I realized Oh my God I don't have to be just a screenwriter. I can write novels.

You come before me this morning with clean hands and clean collars. I want you to have clean tongues clean manners clean morals and clean characters.

We all wake up in the morning wanting to live our lives the way we know we should. But we usually don't in small ways. That's what makes a character like Batman so fascinating. He plays out our conflicts on a much larger scale.