I always think that the writer is doing the vast majority of the director's work, in a sense. If you're a writer who is also going to direct, you're doing all your preparation: You're already visualizing everything, you're imagining how the lines are going to be read, you see the blocking in your head, and you know the rhythm and the pacing.

Acting is all about big hair and funny props... All the great actors knew it. Olivier knew it, Brando knew it.

I'm not a believer in the pratfall. I don't think it's funny just to have someone fall down.

For me, most comedy scripts fail in the mechanical playing-out of the setup. They'll pay lip service to a moral lesson or a psychological progression.

Most comedies are calculated. They tend to pander. They're not about anything important.

I've been directing for 25 years almost, and I've only directed nine films in that time because I like to be careful.

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.