It's not our job to play judge and jury, to determine who is worthy of our kindness and who is not. We just need to be kind, unconditionally and without ulterior motive, even - or rather, especially - when we'd prefer not to be.

It really shocks me when I encounter people who think kindness doesn't matter. Because I think it's pretty much the only thing that matters.

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.

I feel comfortable with women. I have two sisters, so I grew up in a female-dominated environment.

And as a filmmaker, I'm trying to unhook myself from this idea that unless you have a brilliant, long, enormously lucrative theatrical run, that your movie somehow failed. And I don't believe that.

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

The purpose of fiction is to combat loneliness.