Taylor Sheridan

“I had a one-year-old son. How will my failure or success limit what he becomes? I was trying to write screenplays. It doesn't pay very well until you sell one. I was poor.”

“Once I finished 'Sicario,' I knew I wanted to follow it up with 'Hell or High Water.'”

“Most of us don't confront pure anything. What our life does involve is a whole lot of 60/40 and 70/30.”

“I spent a lot of time doing really unimportant work as an actor. It was important when I started writing that I obviously make it entertaining, or no one is going to go see it - but to really make you think, that is my goal.”

“I learned a tremendous amount about dialogue because I suffered as an actor.”

“My job is not to give you all the answers. My job is to ask the questions.”

“In the late '90s, I spent a lot of time on reservations, and there was a level of poverty and injustice that I had not witnessed before. I was shocked by it. This is federally controlled land, and there was an insidious mix of apathy and exploitation.”

“Where having been an actor was extremely helpful to me was in casting. That's where I think a director who has acted can really shine, and casting is the most important thing you do.”

“I spent most of my time as an actor in television, so directors in television - it's such a machine that's already in place that I don't think you notice the direction as much on the set.”

“One of the major issues that's constantly batted around Hollywood and the media is my industry's responsibility toward the portrayal of violence. There's the irony of the films that glorify it and the individuals taking positions against it. It's a very confusing, confounding place.”

“I thought of Jeff Bridges in 'Hell or High Water' and Ben Foster, and I kept trying very hard not to, because you're terrified you're going to write this thing that then feeds specifically to this one person that then won't do it.”

“I was going to be the head wrangler at a ranch in Wyoming, and the reason I didn't take the job is because I couldn't have my family there - the family had to stay in town. I just wasn't willing to do that.”

“I let characters be human and flawed and relatable.”

“I'm not the guy to ask to write a sequel.”

“I think my mission, if I could call it that, as a storyteller is to try and find ways to show how similar we are and not how different we are.”

“To me, 'Unforgiven' is one of the best films ever made. Aside from the fact it takes the genre and kicks it between its legs, it's this fascinating deconstruction of the myth of the West.”

“I had to push exposition through dialogue, which is really, really hard for an actor do.”

“I'm a big believer in,'If anyone can understand my politics, I've failed.' If you can get a sense of which side of the fence I'm on, then I'm not doing a service. I'm preaching, and that's not my job.”

“I sent 'Hell or High Water' to Peter Berg, asking if he'd like to be involved.”

“I wanted 'Hell or High Water' to feel like a road movie and an exciting, fun film - until it's not.”