I got my break in the business with the now-defunct Bill Watts' TWF, the old Mid-South. Which was really, in many ways, the predecessor to ECW in its time, in that age. It was a really cool, high-impact, snug type of product.
One of my first jobs was as a recipe tester for a PR agency. One week, the editor of 'Housewife' magazine called my boss and asked me to write a column - the cookery editor had gone away on a press trip. I was terrified.
I stopped directing in 2001 for four or five years, until I did the TV series 'Masters Of Horror.' I had been working steadily as a director since 1970. That's a long time. I was burned out.
I haven't done any building designs since the Loaf House.
It's true that I'm taking a break from writing a regular column to do other things but it's got nothing to do with what dear Simon has or has not written.
I want to take a few years out, maybe make a couple of more films or whatever.
The biggest direct influence on my career is Ben Edlund, who gave me my first real professional break and, through his friendship and example, turned me into a writer and a more critical thinker in general.
When I leave Barca, I'm sure I'll take at least a year off.
I didn't work for a year after Wall Street. I finished that in November, and then it was the following October that I did Drive, so I took a year off. I didn't do anything at all, really. I just hung around.
I caught a break and took an entry-level job with the Houston Texans when I was 28.
