I think that laughter is very close to terror and horror. Maybe that's just me, but that sort of all - over rush that happens when you are either laughing or terrified or weeping...? I think that comedians, in and of themselves, make other people laugh because they aren't necessarily the happiest people in the world. So they know a lot about dark things.

I want to investigate what scares me and worries me.

('Eraserhead') may seem like a dark film, but my father and I watch it, and all we do is laugh. It was Disneyland everyday on the set. That's when I fell in love with film.

My life is perfectly happy and giggly and I'm perfectly grateful every day; if there are problems to have, the ones I have are the ones to have; I'm lucky.

When you finish some film and you let it out there, it is completely out of your control. You've done what you've done, you haven't done what you haven't done, and now you are up for judgment. People can be all kinds of ruthless and they can be all kinds of wonderful. The joy in what I do is in the doing of it. And then there is the part where people are either going to see what I've offered and liked it or they are going to see what I've offered and wish they hadn't.

Some people are just not going to like me and they're not going to like my work. But that doesn't mean I'm a bad person.

Pressure is an emotional paralysis. It's hard enough to do the dishes when you're feeling pressured, let alone make a movie.