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

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

Something you can do in a comic that you can't do in a film is that you can have thought bubbles.

I think that Spider-Man is a part of our culture. He's a perennial character. He's something that's constantly reexamined and there are so many versions of him in the comics that it was something that I thought that we could do cinematically. He belongs on the big screen.

Romance: That's one of the things that makes Spider-Man really unique, in terms of the comic books. There is a tender, romantic quality to it. And certainly, that's something that's always fascinated me about the cinema: good romance.

When you have to react to a lizard that's a tennis ball, it's a really, really difficult, tricky piece of craft.

When you get that opportunity to be honest and open with somebody, for the first time, and share things about yourself that you haven't been able to share before, that you might be scared of or ashamed about, that's really exhilarating, and I think that's something that people will really identify with.