Andrew Dominik quotes:

You obviously can't cast Brad [Pitt] as an everyman guy because he just brings way too much baggage.

When men organize themselves into groups, and they make rules based on common or self-interest, it's always tangled and political.

I'm not a very efficient filmmaker. There's a lot of guys, filmmakers like the Coen Brothers who shoot a whole movie and maybe don't use 12 setups. I'm in awe of people like that; I'm just not that guy.

There's been about 75 movies about Jesse James, and I've seen about four of them. He's usually portrayed as this plucky rebel who's got no choice but to turn to crime, because the railway's hassling his mother. But he wasn't like that.

The crime film is the most honest American film.

Jesse James is like a Leonard Cohen song, I wanted to do something that was like a pop song.

To me, regardless of who's in office, the government is strangled by business. And the government's priorities are dictated by business. I mean, why does America, even after healthcare reform, still not have free universal healthcare? I'm sure it has something to do with the insurance lobby.

In Australia, we point out a person's weaknesses as a way of saying 'I see you and I accept you'. If you do that with Americans, they instantly take offence.

Americans are not renowned for having a sense of irony.

It always surprises me in films that killers seem so gleeful about killing people.

I really believed Obama when he spoke in 2008, but I remember watching his victory speech after this last election and it was the same speech. Exactly the same speech. I felt like he didn't even believe it anymore. He seemed to be tired of saying the same thing.

Once you do something violent in a film, you don't have to do too much. You do it once and the feeling of violence just stays there, do you know what I'm saying?

I always feel that crime films are about capitalism because it is a genre where it is perfectly acceptable for all the characters to be motivated by the desire for money. In some ways, the crime film is the most honest American film because it portrays Americans as I experience a lot of them, in Hollywood, as being very concerned with money.

I don't think human beings have changed in 2,000 years.

I'm from the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" school of screenwriting. I just like to preserve what works and ignore what doesn't work.

Masculine ideals have become very confused in the modern world.

Obviously, a power player in a criminal organization doesnt have to persuade anyone. He can just do what he wants.

I like test screenings. I like to see a movie with an audience of strangers. I think it tells you a lot.

Actors have either got to play something that's close to them, or something that's the complete opposite.

Sometimes you see a movie and you can really feel that it's an actor putting in a performance. Someone said 'cut' and they're back in their trailer having a coffee or getting their hair done.

Films that score very high with test audiences generally tend to not be so great. But, there's a lot of money involved in making movies, and it's a way for people to reassure themselves, who have spent money, and it's also a way to work out how to market a movie.

America's moved so much of its production and manufacturing offshore, it's become a nation of middlemen.

I always feel that crime films are about capitalism,

The fantasy gives you the courage to feel things.

I imagine that in a closed, hermetic society like the mob, where everybody knows each other, it must be really, really unpleasant to have to kill people. It's the sort of thing you really want to avoid.

I like violence to be upsetting. The only reason to do it subtley is if doing it subtley makes it more effective somehow.

It's very difficult to lie to yourself about certain things. I'm not necessarily convinced about how information is gathered and I don't think the credence that's given to it is valid.

As a filmmaker, it's important to sit there and feel embarrassed. If you feel embarrassed by something, you cut it.