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I wanted to just be a filmmaker, and I thought I wanted to do all the aspects, and it seemed like as a producer was the best way to do it, because I could have... You never have control on a movie, but you have as much control as you can.

'Control' had to do with my own life a lot, and that's why that seemed to be a film I could be the director of, because I had an emotional attachment to the whole story. And because of that experience, I feel that I can try other films. I didn't set out to become a director.

In film work, you do the best you can under the given circumstances, but you don't have control. At least, I don't.

With a film, you try to keep your vision in it. I think with 'The American' and 'Control' I managed to do that.

I went to film school to make films just because you're in control of the story.

As a filmmaker, the only way that I understand how to make a film is holistically.

Every time I do one I feel like I've never really quite learned anything. I always find that when I'm making a film, I find it a little bit like I'm doing it for the first time.

That's why I'm really trying to produce my own stuff. This film was so good, because I produced it myself, and developed it, and made it with New Line, which is a smaller studio, so I was in control of a lot of stuff that I wasn't in control of for my other films.

In that sense, film is superior, but the difficulty is your lack of control as a writer.