Whether it's films or painting or music or writing a book, the greatest experience is being able to express yourself and what you've gone through, trying to figure out a way to make it into something that's artistic that people can connect with.

Usually I don't like to act in movies that I direct because it's kind of confusing.

I act once in awhile if something comes up that seems fun. I like to do it - its a lot of fun because theres no responsibility. You let other people have the headaches. The director has all of the headaches.

Harry [Shearer] and I had an idea to do a movie about rock 'n' roll from the roadies' perspective, from backstage. Then Meat Loaf came out with a movie called Roadie and we thought, "Oh, we can't do that now." So we kind of discarded the idea.

I love working with my dad, but I need to be independent and do my own stuff.

Most people are in marriages, and there are very few movies made about what it really is like to be married for a length of time. You always show the romantic part and all that. Or the divorce, and the horrible split, and the guy's having an affair, or she's having an affair, and they're going to get split up, whatever. But very few people just look at what actually happens in a marriage.

Usually, I have in mind what I want to do. I shoot pretty economically, so I'm not shooting tons of stuff that I could change, all that much. I'll cut something or add a little something back, but not too much. This is maybe the producer part of me, but I'm always worried about the budget, so I shoot what I know I need to shoot for the film.