I want to sit down, and I want to laugh. Nothing works better for me than watching somebody slip on a banana peel.

I think certainly directing is a visual medium, but it's also about communication, and a lot of times great directors are lacking in communication skills, which is rather shocking to discover that.

I'm fascinated by how Hollywood has changed since I started. Today it's about immediate delivery. There's less risk and less art.

Catholics have guilt and Jews have guilt, fine. But mothers can trump them all.

I think that directing is the ultimate martyred task of filmmaking, that it has nobility to it. It takes three years to make a film, for the most part. I think it requires the attentiveness of a mother hen. I don't know how people raise children and direct films. I'm sorry, I don't know, how can you be good at both?

My roles are in some way like children to me. You don't ever really want to scrape one off your shoe.

I love the rebelliousness of snail mail, and I love anything that can arrive with a postage stamp. There's something about that person's breath and hands on the letter.