The end is built into the beginning.

We try to organize the world, which isn't organized the way our brains want to organize it. We tell stories about the people in our lives, we project ideas onto them. We project relationships with people, we make our lives into stories. I don't think we can avoid doing that.

I think everything I do is based on my experience in the world in one way or another.

I really don't have any solutions and I don't like movies that do.

Sand is overrated. It's just tiny little rocks.

I actually think I'm probably more interested in structure than most people who write screenplays, because I think about it.

If I were doing somebody else's script or I adapted a book by Philip Roth, on set there could be a million different interpretations of the material and people could argue with me. Certainly on Synecdoche, New York we had discussions and arguments, but I felt like I had authority because I'm a writer.