I find music the the clearest and easiest way in to what a movie will feel like - more so than visual references or other movies or dense dossiers of research material. Every now and then I'll send a piece of music or two to people I'm working with - actors or heads of department - when I think it'll help them get a sense of the kind of movie I'm proposing. Often those pieces will end up in the movie - sometimes they won't.

You can have levity in the film because real people look for levity in their lives.

I don't want to redo what I've [just done]. I don't want to retread old ground.

I'd like to make all different kinds of movies. I don't think it would make sense though for my second film to walk straight into a musical even though I'd like to.

To see great actors bring it all to life us exhilerating

I love the casting process. It's a cliché but I think it's the most important part of the process. I really enjoy it too. I love putting that jigsaw puzzle of people together.

The first time when you can really get a sense of what the movie is going to look and feel like is when you're in a casting room and seeing it.