I want to make movies that people see. I really think that movies are the most popular form of story telling ever and have such a huge impact on culture when they do.

Elia Kazan - the films he made were such a big deal for me when I was growing up.

I talked to Woody Allen for half an hour or something. It was pretty incredible. He really went into lots of detail about the story [in Blue Jasmin] and what actually happened. Just talking to him is very surreal.

Some movies, I think, present ideas of the world that just don't help people with their lives. They just present things that are fleeting or stupid. So that's what I'm careful about - making sure I'm part of something that is saying something that I think is valuable in the world of people, not necessarily in the world of art.

Each film and each character is a completely new set of challenges. It doesn't feel like you can rest on something you may have done well in the past.

But even a kid, directing was something that I did. I made short films in school. I feel like I've been in the best film school in the world.

I feel about romance the same way I do about a vocation; it's a calling.