Well, I stopped drinking. That was actually a big deal. I didn't go through any harrowing rock-bottom experience. I just made a decision to stop drinking.

You can say something that can really help and actor and you can say something that can really get in the way of an actor's performance, kind of cut them off from their instincts and really get into their heads. And every actor's different. Every actor requires something different. Being an actor, for me, was the greatest training to be a writer and director.

I really like to travel when I write. Something about seeing new things and being in new cultures and environments provokes new thoughts in your head.

The reflexive allergy to L.A. that a lot of New Yorkers have, I feel like it's kind of nonsense.

Each film is difficult, in its own particular way. There's a unique set of challenges on every movie.

I went through this very serious Woody Allen phase in college and a little bit after college. I still see his movies.

There's something melancholy about professors because they're chronically abandoned. They form these lovely relationships with students and then the students leave and the professors stay the same. It's like they're chronically abandoned.