I made some shorts that I'm not in. I think because I write so many short stories, it's not that hard to come up with characters that are not me. But my way into making movies has been through performing. My very first short film, I played a child and her own mother. So in some ways, to me, my great achievement so far is just that I've gotten all these other people to play the other parts. That's what makes it a real movie.

What a terrible mistake to let go of something wonderful for something real.

I cried in English, I cried in french, I cried in all the languages, because tears are the same all around the world.

He's stuck at 3:14 a.m. with only the moon to talk to.

We were always getting away with something, which implied that someone was always watching us, which meant that we were not alone in this world.

Writing a novel was like I had some Play-Doh to work with and could just keep working with it - doing a million drafts and things changing radically and characters appearing and disappearing and solving mysteries: Why is this thing here? Should I just take that away? And then realizing, no, that is there, in fact, because that is the key to this. I love that sort of detective work, keeping the faith alive until all the questions have been sleuthed out.

Nothing really mattered, and nothing could be lost.