Having been a singer in a band, back in my youth, music is really important to me.

My first teacher was Steven Spielberg. I worked on Amazing Stories. That was my first job, as a writer and as a story editor. Watching him and his command of the tools of filmmaking, and his admiration for writing and the story itself, was the greatest lesson I ever had.

The whole point is you're telling a story to an audience. So when there's no audience, it's like cinematic masturbation.

The best actors in the world are the actors who don't keep the walls up all the time and allow themselves the potential to be embarrassed.

Obviously not a Stephen King level writer, but I'd written short stories and short fiction, from the time I was 12.

Having been a singer in a band, back in my youth, music is really important to me.

For me, it's important that a movie is the congregate of all art forms, from writing to art composition to music to performing. Trying to keep a balance of all those is what I think a director's job is.