Much of directing [a movie] is not directing but just listening and being present in the moment and just keeping your eyes open.

Back before 'Brick,' I wrote a short film that I never ended up shooting: hit men in the present who work for a mob in the future who send their victims back in time. A guy is sent his future self, he lets him run, and the whole short was them chasing each other across the city. That sat in a drawer for 10 years until after I made 'Brothers Bloom.

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

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

If I spend a year and a half writing a script, the first year will be outlining in notebooks. It's just the way I work, definitely not necessarily the best way.

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.

I really spend as long as I can sketching everything out and working on the structure before I sit down to type out scenes.