My heroes are Bill Murray and Dustin Hoffman. Those are the two actors that both do comedies and dramas, seamlessly. Also John C. Reilly and Philip Seymour Hoffman. They're all just great actors, neither comedic nor dramatic. They're just great actors.

Besides the fact that I make movies, there's nothing interesting about my life at all, unfortunately.

Every time you're directing a movie you're kind of building a temporary business. You're hiring all these heads of departments, and it definitely feels like I'm like a CEO of a very temporary company.

'Funny People' is my favorite performance of myself to date. Even though it's a comedy and there are serious moments, I really felt like Leo felt like a real person. It didn't feel like I was playing myself. Whether it's a comedy or drama, I just try to make it as realistic as possible.

I mean, I find things that happened in real life to be the funniest - things that you observe instead of crazy abstract things, you know.

New Orleans is like the bad-kid island in 'Pinocchio.'

I've learned through experience of playing different characters, some of whom were jerks, that when you play a character who is pretentious or obnoxious, in any way, it's important to knock them down a peg.