On Making the Picture:

It was a difficult picture to get on because it doesn't fit a genre...That's what I like about it. I've always been attracted to material that was hard to categorize. I think that's what makes it interesting. You don't know how to take life--whether it's funny or terrible...

On Stereotyping:

My wife and I write together. We actually have the same view of the question of stereotypes which is that the primary function--now, we may be wrong in this and stereotypes may do a great deal of harm--but that the primary function as a writer, as an artist, is to hold the mirror up to nature and to depict women and Black people as you perceive them, not how they should be.

Depicting people how they should be is a form of Stalinism and leads to bad art and bad sociology and is not believable to people. Her [his wife's] view of how women are--although I do dishes and she's very militant--is kinda like that. They do tend to behave like she [referring to the character of Lillian] does regardless of their aspirations.

On lead Nick Nolte:

Nick is one of the nicest guys in the world. Even when he used to take dope and drink I've heard he was terribly nice, and he certainly is now.

Toles-Bey concurs: He is a beautiful person. I mean, he is great. To be in the position he's in...he could easily be a dickhead, but he's not.

On the Film's Politics:

This is about the randomness of fate...All our aspirations are subject to weather and how do you keep your optimism and behave in a positive way...A lot of research went into this and I felt that a Marxist analysis of the origins of crime was old hat and wrong. But the more I knew about it, the more I saw it was the case. You have to be uniquely disadvantaged in representation in court and social background to do much time.

On Crime and Punishment:

My wife believes very strongly in capital punishment. She's willing to cut hands off to punish thieving...She's quite bloody minded.