(Warning: This profile may contain objective information.) Writer/Director: Return of the Secaucus Seven (1980) Lianna (1983) Baby, It's You (1983) The Brother From Another Planet (1984) Matewan (1987) Eight Men Out (1988) City of Hope (1990) Passion Fish (1992) The Secret of Roan Inish (1994) Lone Star (1996) Screenplays: Piranha (1978) The Lady in Red (1979) Alligator (1980) Battle Beyond the Stars (1980) The Howling (1981) The Challenge (1982) Enormous Changes at the Last Minute (1983) The Clan of the Cave Bear (1986) Wild Thing (1987) Breaking In (1989) Men of War (1994) Teleplays: A Perfect Match (1980) Unnatural Causes (1986) Shannon's Deal (1990) Music Videos: Born in the U.S.A. (1984) I'm on Fire (1985) Glory Days (1985) Novels: Pride of the Bimbos (1975) Union Dues (1977) Los Gusanos (1991) Short Story Collection: The Anarchists Convention (1979) Nonfiction: Thinking in Pictures: The Making of Matewan (1987) John Sayles' statement on "Lone Star": "A lot of what this movie is about is history and what we do with it. Do we use it to hit each other? Is it something that drags us down? Is it something that makes us feel good? You can get six different people to look at the Alamo and they have six different stories about what actually happened and what its significance was. "The same goes for your personal history. At what point do you say about your parents, 'that was them, this is me. I take responsibility for myself from this day on.' That's also what this movie is about. "Texas is unique among the United States in that it was once its own country. It was a republic formed in a controversial and bloody way. And its struggles didn't end with the Civil War. There is a kind of racial and ethnic war that has continued. That continuing conflict comes into the clearest focus around the border between Texas and Mexico. "I've crossed a lot of rivers, you know, but the funny thing about looking at the Rio Grande is the revelation that there's something else on the other side there. You cross and there are different customs, a different feel, the music is slightly different -- even though they speak Spanish on both sides. Both sides look pretty much the same from a naturalist's point of view. So, it's something that man has created and something he has to work to sustain. "Ours is a story about borders. Towns on either side of a given border generally have more in common with each other than they do with any towns further into their own state. In a personal sense, a border is where you draw a line and say 'this is where I end and somebody else begins.' In a metaphorical sense, it can by any of the symbols that we erect between one another -- sex, class, race, age." -- John Sayles Biography: "Lone Star" is John Sayles' tenth feature film as a writer-director-editor. Sayles' first film was the counterculture classic "Return of the Secaucus Seven," winner of the 1978 Los Angeles Film Critics award for best screenplay. He followed this with "Lianna," the story of a woman coming to terms with her lesbianism. Sayles broadened his audience with the youthful romantic comedy-drama "Baby It's You" and the satirical "Brother from Another Planet," about a black extra-terrestrial whose ship crash lands in New York City. His next two projects were stories about which he had long been passionate, "Matewan" and "Eight Men Out." Sayles had written both these years before he was able to film them, but the projects were considered commercially risky and he had difficulty raising the funds to make them. In 1986, "Matewan," the story of a 1920 miners' strike in West Virginia went before the cameras. The following year, the movie was a featured entry in the Director's Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival. Sayles also wrote a book about the experience, entitled "Thinking in Pictures: The Making of the Movie "Matewan." "Eight Men Out," based on the book by Eliot Asinof which detailed the 1919 baseball World Series scandal, was among Sayles' most popular efforts. It is also one of only two (the other being Rosalie Fry's "The Secret of Roan Inish") scripts he has directed based on material from another source. Sayles scaled down his dramatic canvas for his next picture, the intimate "Passion Fish," about the healing relationship between two Louisiana women. Starring Mary McDonnell and Alfre Woodard, the film earned McDonnell an Oscar nomination for Best Actress and Sayles a nomination for Best Screenplay. Among Sayles' published prose is an O. Henry Award-winning short story and a novel, Union Dues, which was nominated for a National Book Award. He has also written numerous scripts for other directors including the feature "Breaking In" for director Bill Forsyth. For television, he created the acclaimed television series "Shannon's Deal." Sayles frequently works in Hollywood as a script doctor. In 1985, Sayles received the John D. MacArthur Award, given to 20 Americans in diverse fields each year for their innovative work.

Mr. Cranky:
If you were offered the opportunity to live your life as another film person (actor, director, etc.) who would it be and why?

John Sayles:
Flipper -- warm waters, lost of sushi, never had to do interviews.