My films are about the little things that happen between people that are sometimes far more valuable and insightful than the big dramatic things that happen.

When I studied with Nicholas Ray he was always telling us, "If you want to make films, watch a lot of films, but don't just watch films, go take a walk, look at the sky, read a book about meteorology, look at the design of people's shoes. Because all of them are part of filmmaking." So I thought, perfect! That's a good job for me.

I always think the Sex Pistols and the Ramones as very, very important because they stripped things down.

I'm not putting down anyone that does look at their work in that way, but for me I am a hardcore amateur.

Just write a poem as if you're writing a note to one other person.

The New York School poets are my godfathers creatively.

I visited Paterson many years ago - 20 some years ago as a kind of day trip because of William Carlos Williams, because of Allen Ginsberg having lived there. And I went to the Great Falls and sat really in the exact same spot as Adam Driver does as Paterson. And I walked around the factory buildings, and I was rereading - I was reading at the time the epic length poem "Paterson" by Williams.