Well, you know, we all grew up as 'Star Wars' fans.

With 'Brick,' I wrote the script when I was 23 and didn't make the movie until I was 30.

I'm a sci-fi fan, and I guess you have to let go of some of that at some point, and realize that as long as you're focused on telling a story that you care about, at the end of the day, that's what really matters, even to hard-core sci-fi fans.

That's part of the appeal of time-travel movies: The notion of going back and fixing something.

Writing in a lot of ways feels more like excavation than construction. It feels like you're uncovering this thing bit by bit, discovering what it is, instead of constructing it upwards.

Memory is a form of time travel. That's something we do during the course of the day, every single day. The idea of actually being able to physically adjust that and change it instead of being haunted by it is a really human thing.

My favorite sci-fi always uses its hook to amplify some bigger theme or idea - some emotional thrust.