I really trust audiences as having excellent taste, for the most part.

. . . I wrote a letter to Thomas Pynchon asking, Can I have your permission to try to make an [adaptation] of your book? And I had no idea that he would answer me, because he's pretty elusive. But he did send a letter back that said, Yes, you can do that - as long as the only instrument in the opera is a banjo. I thought, That's an interesting way of saying No.

I'm an average enough person to point to the things I've gotten to see that are awe-inspiring.

What happens when you're in a crash is you join a crash club, and you talk endlessly about your crash because you don't want to bore your friends with it. And they've heard about the crash so many times.

My secret dream is to write an epic poem. That's probably the most pretentious thing I've said.

I wanted to impress people because I was kind of a kid who was lost in the crowd - was sort of my, feeling about childhood was being part of a big family.

A lot of artists who have a certain style are expected to more or less keep doing their style. It's so easy to get into that rut of production.