Sean Penn

is that we are bound to repeat it, period.

And if we are going to improve, it's not from reading history books, it's from going through the hell that we create for ourselves and others through our own experience.

The human being has to experience it themselves.

Now, has that applied to Lockjaw and what I saw?

I think...

that one of the reasons we can be cynical about humankind is because we idealize humankind.

And I think what I was reading was someone who worships at the Church of Lethality and understands lethality.

And from that foundation, Paul's writing all made sense to me.

Yeah, well, really prior to working with Christy Hall and Dakota Johnson.

I got two gifts in one year that broke a 15-year record.

sort of depression about the movies.

I think that for a long time, I gauged the value that a film would have to me to begin with on what we'll call a good script, a good cast, and a good director.

and a subject that I would want to go see a movie about.

Those things were enough for a while.

You get older, you get more aware of the sacrifices that time, it's about time, right?

Which we don't get more of.

And it's not enough to work with people you respect and like.

You want the same thing you find in family.

You want to be with people you love.

And it wasn't since Gus Van Zant's movie, Milk, that I'd had that kind of feeling.