Problems emerge and some people try to sweep them under the rug.

I had a couple of movies that I was passionately involved with that I could never get made. 'Richard Pryor,' I wrote for - gosh - over a year. That was close to getting made for two-and-a-half years after that. We're still pushing it, you know. It is weird. Suddenly you wake up and it's like, 'God, five years have gone by.

I do think that's so much a part of what being a director is - in working with actors - to really try and be sensitive to what each actor needs to get to where he wants to be.

I think it would be fun to write about movies again.

I really think the biopic thing so rarely works, because peoples lives dont have a dramatic shape that can be satisfying.

The thing I've noticed about life is that it just keeps coming at you. And it can be a real bummer. What you need to remember is that you're not alone. You've got friends and family. That's how we get by. We talk and share and eat cake and giggle in the dark, even when we're scared - no, especially when we're scared.

Our relationships, relationships between adults, how all those pieces fit together - that's the most complicated thing we all face.