A lot of times, L.A. is desaturated, and cement and freeways, and downtown.

I had written a script called "Freed," which I had wanted to direct.

A script like Nightcrawler gives me an opportunity to truly realize a vision thats mine, which is exciting.

Shooting at night in Los Angeles is amazing. The city shuts down at 10 P.M. every night, and a whole different cast of characters comes out.

The spirit of L.A. is untamed wilderness. It's earthquakes and wildfires and oceans and mountain lions and fog. There's great physical beauty.

I spend most of my time in a room alone where eight hours go by, and I have no sense of time. I work seven days a week, and I live in this sort of vague subconscious fog a lot.

Unknowns in life are adventures, avoid calling them fears.

That level of responsibility drastically conflicts with my belief in self-preservation by inactivity.

Love is the business of the idle, but the idleness of the busy.

I think the most interesting New Yorkers are the people who were not born here.

The most extraordinary thing in the world is an ordinary man and an ordinary woman and their ordinary children.

Never contradict. Never explain. Never apologize. (Those are the secrets of a happy life!)

The teacher should use illustrations for the better teaching of the lesson, and never to fill up time, to amuse the class, or to display his own genius.

Growth is always a gradual process, a bridge slowly crossed and not a corner sharply turned.

Some things were worth the dance with danger.

Things base and vile, holding no quantity, love can transpose to form and dignity