Paul Schrader

No matter how fast you run or how far you run, you can not outrun your childhood.

I was scouting locations for Cat People when the news came over the radio. I said to the driver, it's one of those Taxi Driver kids. When I got back to the hotel, the FBI was waiting for me because Hinckley had mentioned the film. They wanted to know if he had tried to contact me. This is a very thorny moral question. My feeling is that if you censor art you will lose Crime and Punshiment but you will still have Raskolnikov. But I also feel that there is a level of moral responsibility as well.

The times piece was mostly true, some of it was out of context and that's inevitable. It began as an article about Bret and I making a film, then it was going to be an article about the new Lindsay but when the new Lindsay didn't show up, it became an article about the old Lindsay. Not even the New York Times is immune to the hurricane force of the Lohan phenomenon.

I think likability is an overrated quality in screen characters. What they need to be is interesting. If you put an interesting person in front of the viewer for 45 minutes and don't give another perspective the viewer will begin to empathize with a character he or she previously though beneath empathy. That's one of the ways art works.

DeNiro suggested that to Marty and I about 15 years ago and I told him it was the dumbbest idea that I've ever heard. I told him that character had died not more than 6 months after that movie was over. He was on a death trip and was gonna succeed the next time.

I was also to blame for the Exorcist fiasco, I worked with people I didn't respect and who didn't respect me. As an alpha personality director you always think you can outwit your opponent, but in this case I could not.

Fantasize about working.

1. No I did not make that connection.

2. I will be directing a script of mine the end of this year, coincidentally with Nicholas Cage. I had several of my own scripts fall through or not get made, which is why I proposed Bret and I go DIY. The Jesuit, which I was going to direct has now been directed and will come out next year. I have not seen it.

3. The epilogue is not a dream sequence, it's just the restarting of the movie. I've always felt that the last frame could be spliced to the first frame and the movie started all over again. However, you are right to say that good movies leave themselves open for interpretation.

The first week on Blue Collar Harvey Keitel after a fight with Richard Pryor left the set and went to the airport and bought a ticket. I knew if he got on the plane my first film would have fallen apart and I'd never direct again. I started getting emotional and the AD had to walk me around the block. When I got back to the set Pryor looked at me and said, "Are you going to be a pussy or are you going to be a man?" We were able to talk Harvey back from the airport.

Yes, I did one about the crime world in Quebec in the 70s. I did about Ayahuasca and the world of hallucinogens. Those are two that come immediatly to mind and there are more.

The answer to the second question is yes, Marty quit before I did. He had a very bad asthma experience in Rome and fortunately he was able to stop cold.