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

I was a Marvel guy. I started reading comics when I was a kid.

Earnestness can ferment into sentimentality.

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.

I think it's really important, when you're redefining a character [ Spider-Man], for the audience to experience things that they haven't experienced, from the ground up. I wanted to build a character. I feel like point of view is a really crucial thing in the story, and that you need to build up the emotional building blocks, so that you can experience all the other emotions in a very specific way, rather than just experiencing it in an intellectual way.

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

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