My number one goal was not getting 'A's' - and I proved it. I was a 'C' student. You have to be ready to learn. If you're not interesting in learning it doesn't work. As I grew older and wanted to learn and desperately wanted inside information learning was a lot easier.

I wanted to translate from one flat surface to another. In fact my learning disabilities controlled a lot of things. I don't recognize faces so I'm sure it's what drove me to portraits in the first place.

I didn't have a regular school experience and wanted a more abstract way of learning. I started exploring in lots of different creative ways. It gave me the opportunity to travel and play music so it was good for me.

We wanted to solve robot problems and needed some vision action reasoning planning and so forth. We even used some structural learning such as was being explored by Patrick Winston.

I spent a little time in Germany as a schoolboy learning German and it's a country I knew very well spent a lot of time in. I knew the history very well. I've always wanted to do a piece of work about the post-war period of one sort or another.

I wanted to get to that aesthetic proposition that comes out of learning the human elements of a world so that those notes and rhythms mean something to you besides just the academic way in which they fall in place.

If anybody wanted to photograph my life they'd get bored in a day. 'Heres Matt at home learning his lines. Here's Matt researching in aisle six of his local library'. A few hours of that and they'd go home.

I was a kid and I wasn't even sure if I wanted to play the drums you know? All I wanted to do was skateboard but I was still learning and taking it in so it was good.

I can't do the same movies all my life. I'm conscious of that. But it's a trade-off. 'Dear John' allowed me to do movies I've wanted to do. You learn to balance it out. I'm still learning. Only now am I getting to do the kinds of movies that I have wanted to do. So it's a steady climb. You don't jump into a Soderbergh film.

Yes. I did more research than I ever wanted to and saw some things I wish I didn't. I went on ride-alongs spent time with Homicide Cold Case and SVU detectives hung out in subways learning how to spot pervs and pick-pockets viewed an autopsy went to a police firing range and witnessed court cases and I read read read.