Quotes

In the big picture, my two biggest artistic heroes are Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard.

Right now, for a creative or artistic or even just a curious person, I think over-exposure to academia is intellectual and spiritual poison.

I kind of had to take the critic's side of my brain out behind the woodshed and kill it.

Largely, I subscribe to David Milch of Deadwood's advice: do a ton of research, then forget it, and then use your imagination.

I sometimes say that my biggest storytelling influences are David Milch and Vince McMahon.

I started life in a place called Ava, Missouri, a small town in the Ozarks. My mother was 18 when I was born. My grandmother was 36. My biological father, who I never knew, spent most of his short life in prison. Money was not abundant.

Hollywood's not a meritocracy. People in the industry like to say things like 'the cream rises to the top.' But what they fail to mention is that you usually have to be born in the bucket of milk first.

I feel like I was raised by pop culture. I connected with that stuff more than, say, with my family. I grew up isolated. To talk about my childhood without bringing in watching Westerns all the time or them living in my head would not be really talking about my childhood.

I have this big-time blue-collar chip on my shoulder. I'm a small-town guy. Grew up in single and double-wide trailer parks. Raised on old Westerns, Burt Reynolds and Clint Eastwood movies, pro wrestling, and country music. That's my cultural heritage.

On set, I'm not a big personality. I'm a pretty quiet, chill guy. I'm not barking orders or anything like that...I'm just trying to connect people together and get everyone on the same page. I'm not trying to lead people into battle. I don't give big speeches.

I'm the only person in my family who doesn't live in the same county in the Ozarks, up to second cousins. Everybody lives there. I had to venture out on my own, and leave home, and leave my family to chase this thing that I was never quite sure was going to work out.

If I close my eyes and start thinking about a story, I'm never setting it in New York, never setting it in LA. I'm a tourist there. I feel at home in a rural setting, and especially among blue collar people of whatever demographic. I feel kinship with them. It may not be reciprocated, but I feel it. Even though I work in Hollywood, I consider myself a blue collar dude.

I like violence, morality plays, and open landscapes.