Jim Jarmusch on how he got the inspiration to make 'Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai' (1999): "Interviewer: Can you tell me where the initial idea for 'Ghost Dog' (1999) came from? Jarmusch: I can’t really because I did everything backwards. I started with a really vague idea, but wanting to work with Forest Whitaker was really the beginning. So I was trying to think of what kind of character I could make for the qualities in him as an actor that I liked. That contradiction he has of being both gentle and imposing. So it really started from here. I thought of a warrior character, but with a spiritual side so that I could get both aspects of him as an actor. Then the samurai thing became interesting to me. Unlike Western warriors, who trained just as warriors, Eastern warriors like samurai—or more particularly, Shaolin monks in China—are also priests and teachers. Although samurai are not priests, there is a spiritual depth to their training. So it seemed like an interesting thing. Then to make a kind of Don Quixote character who follows an ancient code that is not part of the modern world seemed interesting to me. I started collecting ideas, as I always do, and eventually I sit down and weave them together and see what the hell I’ve come up with." (Jim Jarmusch's interview with Chris Campion, 2000)