25th Hour is not only your first produced screenplay, but was also based on your first published novel. Spike Lee has now brought it to the screen, and the cast and talent assembled is amazing. It is quite an accomplishment; so, how did the project come together?

Before the book was published and it was still in galleys form, my agent sent it to various people in Hollywood. One person she sent it to was Tobey Maguire's manager. And my agent called me and said, "Tobey Maguire has read the first half of your book and loved it. I want you fly out here and meet him." My first reaction was, Well, he's gonna hate the second half, so what's the point. (laughs) So I flew out and met with him and it went really well, and he did love the second half. His company at the time, Industry, which managed him, is also a production company. They ended up optioning the book and I wrote the adaptation.

What were your feelings about adapting your own novel to the screen?

It was a couple of years after I finished the book that this actually happened so that probably helped. I was definitely worried about it but I was also excited by it. I thought it could be a good movie, and if someone was going to do it I wanted to write it myself. There are certain things I wrote that I don't think would work as movies, but this has a relatively compact story and a compact time frame. So I saw that it could work. And when they told me they were going to hire me for Writer's Guild minimum, which sounded like nothing, but then I found out what Guild minimum was I realized I could quick teaching Freshman Composition at UC-Irvine and become a full-time writer. (laughs) That was my dream, and the money sure helped.

Was Spike Lee always attached to the project?

No, he wasn't. Tobey Maguire started the whole thing, then a couple of months after that happened he got Spider-Man. And he very early on realized he wasn't going to be able to do both but he still wanted to be closely involved with the project so he became a producer. Then, in December 2001 I got the call that Spike Lee had read it and was interested in doing it. And he wanted me in New York so I flew there and we sat down and met.

What did that feel like, meeting Spike Lee?

I had the very unusual experience of hearing Spike Lee say, "I like this script but I don't think it is faithful enough to the novel." Kind of bizarre! He said that I had taken out a couple of his favorite scenes. I explained why I cut the scenes and he explained why I was wrong. (laughs) So I put them back in.

I think I might be able to guess what scenes those might have been...

(laughs) One in particular was Edward Norton's monologue where he is cursing everyone out. It had always been an important part of the book, but I just couldn't figure out how to dramatize it and see it on screen. But Spike did. The funny thing was that once he was doing it, I began to see it too. It is a trademark Spike moment. Obviously, everyone remembers Do the Right Thing, with all the characters attacking everyone.

It is a pretty controversial scene, and certainly unusual for a mainstream film. Was there any resistance to reinstating it?

I wrote it back in, and Disney immediately filed a complaint. When they came to the project, they liked the script but the one thing they were agitated about was this moment. They wanted it cut. So, Spike asked me to write a letter to them explaining why it was important to the movie. I did, although I don't think anyone ever read the letter because I never got a response. He just shot it, and I don't think they knew he shot it. But when he showed them the movie, they agreed that it belonged.

It is a very pivotal scene, in that it is really the only moment when we realize how much anger is behind Monty's actions. Without it, I doubt it would really have been clear just why he turned to a life of crime...

I think it is true, it gives you access. In the book, one thing that is really hard about going from novel writing to a screenplay is that you don't have access to the character's minds. And this is really the only one moment in the movie where you get inside Monty's head. We know that he is not actually reciting this rant, these are his thoughts. I think getting access to this anger was really important to me. In the novel as well it was important that the word "Fuck" became the rhythmic word he riffs off of. I wanted to have that in the movie, and in a way it is a moment that actually works better on the screen, because you have Edward Norton saying it and you can hear it. It adds a real power to it, and allows us to understand his anger and his guilt. Because in the end, the final person he curses is himself. Ultimately, everyone else is the scapegoat, and he is responsible for his own transgressions.