Other filmmakers make their movies and put them out and that's that. For me, for some odd reason, it goes deeper than that.

One of the reasons I always looked up to [George] Carlin is he looked like your grandfather but, acted like your best friend. Most of the adults in my world were adults and acted like adults and had job-type jobs and bills and pressures and stopped playing a long time ago. And George Carlin was a guy that the more he aged the younger he seemed. It was odd because he was still sagely and wise. But he was such a role model for me.

More often than not, a hero’s most epic battle is the one you never see; it’s the battle that goes on within him or herself.

People tend to romanticize this job. So, it's fun to let the air out of it.

Any book is a self-help guide if you can take something from it.

It's not like someday my kid's gonna be standing over my grave, and somebody's gonna hang her a folded flag and say, "You know what? This is 'cause he did 24 hours straight on Twitter." But it's just one of those little personal victories, like, "I wonder if I can do this." And I did it. A stupid goal, but I accomplished it. Life's all about...for me, at least...having very stupid achievable goals. That way, you always feel like a winner.

There was never any down side to casting friends over professionals. It was always fun seeing folks who never performed before stretching their wings.