The only stuff I don't like are Broadway musicals. I hate them. I don't even like to talk about it. I can't bear musicals.

. . . 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.

The audience creates its own personality, I've noticed, in the first five minutes. They will either be generous, funny, silly, withholding, academic, analytical, grudging. And I'm fascinated with how that gets constructed, because it happens right away.

I realized why movie scores are mostly strings, because it really frees your eyes to look around.

People only stutter at the beginning of the word. They're not afraid when they get to the end of the word. There's just regret.

Don't be afraid of anyone. Imagine your life if you're not afraid of anyone.

My work is more about trying to ask good questions and not trying to come up with big shows. Every fashion company is doing that, every car company is doing that.