Most of the time for me, you're learning what not to do, as opposed to what to do. You never know what to do. I don't, especially in a work environment. You have a little formula yourself. But when I see a director do something I think, whatever he or she just said totally screwed that actor up and now they're worse. I'm never going to do that. I'm going to figure out something else. I want my movie to be good. And that's how it works.

I know it's good when I see a smaller film get recognized because it means more publicity for them. Any way to get the word out, I'm just learning about this. The end of this distribution sentence is the scariest part, which is when you start producing and directing. Now the movies are a little more like your children. You now spent years of your life and then it just dumps in one day and you think what happened? It doesn't always happen.

In the editing room, 20 percent of the time you're using stuff from before the actor knew the camera was rolling or you're taking a line from somewhere else and putting it in his mouth.

Directing is: you're overwhelmed the whole time. Your mind never stops. If you care about it. You wake up in the morning and you begin thinking about it and then you go to sleep at night and you're still thinking about it.

I learned, especially from my mother, to respect the profession and take it seriously, but not take yourself too seriously.

I tend to turn down roles that are too much like me, what I think is most like me anyhow, because I'm me all the time and I'm sick of it.

Most of us... are simply just trying to get through the day. And wait for those times in their life that are markers, that put things into relief. That's why we like movies and books so much.