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

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 love watching all sorts of different types of movies, but that doesn't mean they're necessarily movies I want to be making. I'm not sitting around saying, "Man, I'd really love to direct a western." That's just not something I'm probably going to do. But, I'm just looking to work on things that both feel professionally exciting and personally relevant.

I actually have a thing about proper nouns. They clang on my ear in a weird way when I hear them dropped into movies.

My film school is making movies. But, I do think that being an actor has served me immensely, as both a writer and director, in terms of knowing what is playable and what will be fun to play, for actors, and also how to communicate to actors on set, and not screw them up and get them in their head.

My trick is the trick that everyone knows: Work really hard and prepare.

I learned a lesson which I didn't heed: Don't put yourself in your movies. It's too much.