I don't like when you necessarily know that this is the end of the movie. I like when a movie ends abruptly. You go through this, and some of the scenes are uncomfortable, and some are funny - and then suddenly it's over.

I watch movies all the time, so it's hard to pick certain specific directors that have inspired me in the aggregate.

I like having associations with locations beyond their meaning for the specific movie.

I really like my first movie a lot, "Kicking and Screaming." I think it's a - I'm very pleased and proud of that movie, but it wasn't the - it wasn't "Citizen Kane" right out of the box, you know? It wasn't "Sex, Lies and Videotape."

When I make a movie, I have both a specific and vague, amorphous dream idea of what the movie is going to be. Of course, I don't actually know what it's going to be, but I'm still striving to get to some place with it.

I love black-and-white movies that are about contemporary subjects.

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