If I have any particular appeal to women, maybe it's because I listen more than other guys do and appreciate how they think and feel about things.

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.

There is this idea in Hollywood, and I've seen it work for people, where the unspoken rule is 'Do two for them and one for yourself.' And that's kind of considered a fact. I've never really found that to be true for me. I've gotten more opportunities out of working on things I believed in than I ever did on things that weren't special to me.

I've learned it's important not to limit yourself. You can do whatever you really love to do, no matter what it is.

I think about death a lot, like I think we all do. I don't think of suicide as an option, but as fun. It's an interesting idea that you can control how you go. It's this thing that's looming, and you can control it.

I like working with actresses, and I like women a lot, not for obvious reasons, but just in that that theres so much about what they bring to the scene that keeps it so interesting. Their instincts are so different, and they never explain them to you.

In some way, the relationship between a director and an actor is personal.