[Gal Gadot] is really intense and scary and also incredibly warm and sweet.

One of the dangers of making a movie about young people is it's potentially trite.

It actually took me 20 years to want to write about my youth. I was definitely always a little intimidated about writing about that part of my life.

I am very interested in the small decisions people make that do set you on a different road in your life. As much as we have influence over what kind of person we're going to become, there are little tests along the way.

I don't see that many movies where people are depicting middle-class suburban life in a more textured way. My feelings about the suburbs are not so wonderful, so my movies tend to be a little melancholy.

I lived on Thompson Street in SoHo for 13 years and I watched it go from a little Italian neighborhood to the Mall Of America. Then the obvious fact that it's pre-Internet, pre-cell phone. Everyone I think thinks their youth is a more innocent time. I just don't know.

[Gal Gadot] is really intense and scary and also incredibly warm and sweet.