"The aesthetics of it, just the way the frontier looked. The way it was shot, it made it seem like it was the land of opportunity, this new frontier, this undiscovered territory for a certain culture. We were introduced to — which I didn’t know as a kid — the people that actually lived there, or are from there. We were introduced to their lives. They weren’t just Wild Bunch, killing people. It was very heartfelt, and it wasn’t just this white man coming to save the day. It was more along the lines of he was learning the ways, and he earned, from the audience and the tribe, their trust. I believed that our lead character, Kevin Costner, became a part of the tribe, because the movie takes its time to do so, which is risky, because you can lose us if you’re going too slow, if it’s paced like a snail. But everything worked, and the flow of story wasn’t interrupted or sacrificed due to some cool moments, or movie moments that needed to keep the audience awake. They were unapologetic in that way, so I really appreciated it. There’s the whole coffee interaction, and “tatanka.” That was my s—, man. I used to love that. And the score. The score was incredible. I love the score."

"I love L.A. Confidential. If it’s on for even a second, I just watch it to the end. I almost want to call my cable service provider and ask them not to show it any more, because it has overwhelmed my life. It’s because I’m from California, from Los Angeles, because the idea of police corruption, of political ambition, of logic and defying expectations. Really, Bud White is Rudy, in the thug cop questing for detective greatness. [laughs] There’s something about that. Also, the way that it commingles all of the ideas of pornography and politics and financial development and mob power and drugs. You know, I studied history and English at UCLA, and one of the big themes in a bunch of our history classes had to do with, “How is it that Los Angeles and Hollywood and California present themselves to the world as both this destination place of palm trees and glitter and gold and your future, and also corruption and deceit?” There’s this duality to it, and I just think that Curtis Hanson’s way of delivering that… And the performances! I mean, David Strathairn and Russell Crowe and Kim Basinger and Kevin Spacey and James Cromwell… Police corruption, and justice, vigilante justice, and it’s just got everything. It’s just a perfect movie."