One of the most ephemeral and important things is atmosphere and tone and it's very hard to put your finger on what creates that.

Although filmmaking is collaborative and involves trust, ultimately it is the director who holds the whole picture together in their head.

I love films where you go into the cinema and loosen the edges of yourself and you hopefully enter into the world of the film. You're watching something unfold before you. I prefer the idea of wonder or intense wonder over shock or something.

I'm trying to get under people's skin in a way. I don't like films that go in one ear and out the other.

I think striking the right tone for your story is, if you like, the alchemical work of writing.

I've never forgotten what it's like to be in your early twenties, which is not a particularly easy time. You've left your family, you've left the strictures of high school, and you're trying to break free and form yourself but you have to support yourself as well. We don't really give enough credence to that time of life and to its troubles.

I, myself, don't like to see a film on Friday night and then forget it by the next day.