I'm interested in directing movies about situations that I've lived, so they are almost a personal essay about what I've come to believe in.

Definitely, there's a lot of trouble you come up against when you're acting and directing, about your performance. Sometimes it's hard to be objective about it. I will tend to get two takes and walk away. I don't belabor it, and it's important to me to have someone who says, "You know what? You should get another one, and maybe you should try it like that".

I don't know if I see myself as really an action hero, but I like doing physical movies and I like doing movies where the writing is very lean.

We think, "If I have more money, I am more valuable. If I make more money, I am more valuable." It's all sort of wound up with this problem that humans have with their failure.

I did a couple of plays in junior high school, maybe high school, and then I did a play in college.

I was raised with a single mom and we had a very specific, very particular relationship. She worked with me and my job. I was almost three and we traveled everywhere together and she was really in my life in a really profound way. The most significant relationship of my life. It was beautiful and also an incredible, difficult struggle. I know how creative that life is, and how difficult it is to figure it out.

My definition of a friend is somebody who adores you even though they know the things you're most ashamed of.