In almost the same way you know what your grandmother looks and sounds like, you know what Bruce Willis looks and sounds like.

You go from these high hopes when you're writing to just a desperate want of not making a complete fool of yourself by the end of it.

I mean, the first “Back to the Future” is kind of a perfect script, I think. In terms of handling time travel the best, it depends on your definition. To me, that means it effectively uses it in the story.

I'm definitely a big believer in the notion that a heightened style can get you closer to an authentic human experience than so-called realism on film. There are films I love that have kind of a muted or realistic style, but for me on any given day I have more moments during the course of a day that feel like a Fellini movie than I do a Cassavettes movie.

I do love science fiction, but it's not really a genre unto itself; it always seems to merge with another genre. With the few movies I've done, I've ended up playing with genre in some way or another, so any genre that's made to mix with others is like candy to me. It allows you to use big, mythic situations to talk about ordinary things.

The momentum of production keeps you from giving up, so it's really the editing and writing phases where things can look bleakest.

Game of Thrones' is just incredible, what they pull off every week.