The first thing I remember is Alexander Calder - our school took us on a field trip to go see the Calder mobiles, and that always stuck in my memory.

It isn't so much that I choose the roles - I mean, I guess there's a little bit of a selection process - but it's more just what people offer you.

I try to find a way to make it comfortable or interesting or funny to me.

It's not enough just to be real; you have to try to make it interesting or entertaining.

If a movie goes south, it might not capsize me the way it used to. But I still have a terrible fear of failure. I'm a huge worrier.

We worked together with Wes Anderson writing a couple more movies together: Rushmore [1998] and Tenenbaums.

Hansel is certainly about comfort, while still sort of having a peacock principle of wanting to attract attention.