I think I've had pretty good experiences for the most part with the people who have directed my screenplays.

And so not only do you have to make that work, you can't really start putting the thing together in any form because some of the shots are very short and obviously many of them take so long, you're waiting months and months and months before you can see if it's going to be working emotionally.

I just try to be honest, because I think that's part of my job description as a writer.

I feel like I want to keep moving toward idiosyncracy. Personal, personal, personal.

I do have some theatrical background. I've written plays and seen plays and read plays. But I also read novels. One thing I don't read is screenplays.

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.

I do throw out a lot of ideas, and I forget completely about them.