Paul Schrader — American Director born on July 22, 1946,

Paul Joseph Schrader is an American screenwriter, film director, and film critic. Schrader wrote or co-wrote screenplays for four Martin Scorsese films: Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The Last Temptation of Christ and Bringing Out the Dead. Schrader has also directed 18 feature films, including his 1982 remake of the horror classic Cat People, the crime drama American Gigolo, the biographical drama Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, the cult film Light Sleeper, the drama Affliction, the biographical film Auto Focus, and the erotic dramatic thriller The Canyons... (wikipedia)

People who act against their own best interests are interesting characters.
As screenwriters, we struggle with our own success. We have wallpapered our world and now we can't get anyone to notice the picture we just hung.
I want to be happy; why do I do things that make me unhappy?
If you write interesting roles, you get interesting people to play them. If you write roles that are full of nuance and contradiction and have interesting dialog, actors are drawn to that.
Ultimately, it's an illusion that you can understand yourself.