As a kid, I thought of myself as a funny person who secretly wanted to be serious, but now I think maybe I'm a serious person who secretly wants to be funny.

When I meet certain filmmakers, sometimes you sit down and you do have some kind of shorthand. It can be fun to see them as someone who has been through similar experiences, but also as someone who just loves film. You can talk with them about films in a way that feels really free.

How you start the movie is critical. And how often you feel that there's no reason for how it's starting.

It's kind of major, learning to drive. I feel like it kicked up other stuff in my life.

Being articulate, my parents could make anything sound reasonable.

I get a lot of responses to my movies. Some people say, 'Oh, I thought it was really funny - I hope that's okay!' And my answer always is 'Yes. It's totally okay.'

There's always some generational-guys-hanging-out movie that is made every few years, I think, and some of them are great.