I don't know, I just got a feeling about her. You know when a song comes on and you just gotta dance?

You can't make a movie for everybody. You can't go into it trying to alienate people, but you have to assume that you're going to.

It was more important to me to understand what its like to be this Jewish kid who felt he was so different at such a young age. I feel the story is about a kid who came to hate through love, so I felt I had to learn why he loved this thing so much that he also apparently hated it.

I’ve been lucky, so lucky, working with [...] Rachel (McAdams) on The Notebook. A big draw for me, when I do a film, is who am I going to be opposite, because there’s only so much I can do on my own.

I think we just knew that we had a movie when Rachel walked in the room.

It's misogynistic in nature to try and control a woman's sexual presentation of self. I consider this an issue that is bigger than (one) film.

You know how sometimes department stores have these things where, if you win, you get 10 minutes to go in and take anything you want from the store? That's basically what I'm doing. I'm running in and just trying to grab as many characters as possible before they pull the plug on me.