When you dont inherit an identity you have to define it on your own.

It's really hard to find just a simple character-driven drama, outside of a genre, that was available to direct, except for on TV.

It's very important to keep the emotions grounded, to keep the characters in some real place.

Working with the actors, working with production designers, working with the creative people who surround the process is really fun, it's really inspiring and I take great pleasure in working with them. That's what's most fun about directing.

Audiences can tell when you're being fake and they will eat you alive. But if you're doing something authentic they will connect to it and that can lead to commercial success.

Geeks are running the world, anyone who's seen The Social Network knows the dynamic has shifted, but what I think is iconic and timeless about Peter Parker is that he's an outsider, on the outside looking in, and that was something I thought was very important to protect.

I just like that dynamic in relationships in movies where they're kind of lovers as rivals, you know?