I do think, even though I’ve made these genre movies, there’s what happens in the movie and then there’s what the movie’s about. And for me, what the movie’s about is so much more interesting.

Jumpy is the most incredible animal of all time. The movie [Valley of Violence] is the tamest example of what that dog is capable of.

You get to actually make your movie. As a filmmaker, that’s the dream. That’s why you get up in the morning, to be able to do that. You feel constrained sometimes, but if the movie makes sense in the budget realm, then it isn’t hard.

I found Jumpy on YouTube. I wrote a movie about a guy with a dog and was like, “What have I done? This is going to be a nightmare. We’re a small movie and we’re never going to be able to do this.”

It’s this long monologue [in Valley of Violence] with Ethan Hawke talking about life and everything with a dog. That’s not in movies. Hopefully when people think about the movie when they go home, they’re like, “That’s weird. He’s maybe crazy. He’s talking to a dog the whole time.”

The Innkeepers were two nerds in a dead-end job and then they try to get involved and they get in over their heads, and how does it affect them? That, to me, just seems like what happens to people.

Really, I wanted to make a movie [Valley Of Violence] about: How does violence affect people? This is a take from me on how violence affects people.

You have to. But I generally try – I’ll creep in the back. I’ll be outside. I’ll pace around. I don’t really get that nervous about whether people like [my films].

There’s nothing stopping you from making movies. You can always make and try different things.

You want to be able to say [to Ethan Hawke’s character], “Dude, it’s okay,” but maybe it’s not. Maybe he’s not a good person. I don’t know. That’s the thing about people. There is no real good guy or bad guy [in A Valley Of Violence]. It’s all context.

I think having funny characters is just one way of having three-dimensional characters.

I’m doing an over-the-shoulder shot on a dog. I’m putting the camera behind the dog’s shoulder. This is craziness. You just accept it in the movie [Valley of Violence], but when you make the movie, it’s the weirdest thing. There’s dog coverage, like it’s a person.

Of course, we talked about Westerns we like with [James Ransone in Valley of Violence] , but it was always thematically in relation to the movie and what the themes of the movie were.

The bad guys, when they start getting picked off, they’re upset that their friends died, too. But that’s the thing. That’s what life is. It’s that weird gray area.

If you ever see the director pulling people aside, that means something‘s not working. Because you’re trying to figure out why it’s not working. But we would show up, we would talk about it.

As filmmakers, the Western is a historic, cool thing to be a part of once in your life.

Everything Jumpy could do [in Valley of Violence] was too much. If I put it in the movie you would all check out. When he wraps himself up in the blanket, that’s as far as I could go, and that’s not even close. The dog’s amazing.

I mean PJ – James Ransone – he was a friend of mine, he probably heard all this stuff, but for the rest of the cast [Valley of Violence], we mostly just talked about their characters and things like that. That was the business at hand.

Older actresses apparently have no sense of humor about being older actresses.

One of my favorite scenes of the movie [Valley of Violence] is when Ethan Hawke is sitting at the campfire with the dog.