I remember the first day I was looking at my hands and I thought about my nails. People wouldn't really be paying attention to that, but a Civil War doctor - What would they be doing with their nails? Would they cut them really low? And Dr. Burns said, "No, they would let them grow out so they can scoop stuff out. They would use their nails." So for a while I let my nails grow. They were too long. I kept stabbing myself by accident, so I cut them down, but I was trying to be faithful to the details.

It's really hard to be poor in New York - I was really poor when I lived in New York.

Film allows me to ask some really big questions with the time to explore them deeply. I love the form.

One man's uplift is another man's sentimental hooey.

Everyone has expectations. You just don't want to have them dashed, so you're quiet about them.

The purpose of fiction is to combat loneliness.

In college, you're kind of designing who you want to be. And I wanted to be a big reader.