I was kind of scared of failing at acting.

A director on a film really sets the tone of how people go about things, so everybody is happy to be at work and everybody does their best.

I worked the drive-through at McDonald's and tried out different accents - Italian, Russian, Irish.

Almost all the movies I've directed are adaptations. And I think what I found when I went to film school, where they try to push you to find your voice or your thing, is that I got a lot of things out of adaptations.

I put out a lot of different kinds of material, and maybe people read that as egotistical. Or maybe, since a lot of it does involve some aspect of me, they find it self-aggrandizing. But there’s a long tradition of artists using themselves. Look, I know I’m not perfect. And, who knows, maybe a part of it has to do with self-obsession. But it’s also about using this weird thing that is a public persona as raw material for creative projects.

They say living well is the best revenge but sometimes writing well is even better.

You just don't really rehearse kissing scenes, whether it's male or female.