I try to measure the amount of truth in a work rather than just looking at the generic distinction between comedy and drama.

Where's the great pay? Where's the travel? Where's the Winnebago, Goddamnit!

Parents tell us things to protect us, or they educate us from their own misinformation or misconceptions.

Life has all of these contradictory feelings and contradictory results. People spend their whole lives struggling to get what they think they want, and even if they get it, they find that it's either not what they wanted, or it comes with so many unwanted consequences. We're always shut off from pure joy.

The cutting room is where you discover the optimal length of the movie.

Once you're alienated, you're on your own. That takes you to the world of the existential, where things just kind of float.

When you grow up in Chicago, your whole family is counting on you to go to college and do something distinguished. The last thing you're thinking is that you're going to make a career in show business.