Even without Mickey Rourke! "I remember meeting with a studio executive after he saw the movie and he said, 'You have a lot to learn about editing.' I said 'I’m sure I do, give me an example.' He brought up the roast beef sandwich scene. 'Well you’re going on and on with, "Are you gonna eat the sandwich, not eat the sandwich," just cut it and get on with the story.' I said, 'Well, that is the story.' It’s a way to talk about friendship. A lot of time you see movies and people are talking about, 'How long have we been friends?' Friends don’t talk about being friends. From the nature of their conversation, you know they’re friends. That was the point. We talk about problems with girlfriends in abstract ways, we get off the point, we get into arguments that are not essential to what the argument is really about. We’re always messy. That, really was the point of Diner." [Baltimore Magazine via The Awl]