I really didn't know what I wanted to do. I went to art school and tried a bunch of different things, but I knew I wanted to do something in the visual arts. And I'd always been around my dad's film sets, so the interest was there. But I didn't have the guts to say, "I want to be a director," especially coming from that family.

I definitely have had friendships and moments with people from different backgrounds and in different stages of their lives.

I always try to make the soundtrack a good CD on its own.

I wanted to make a love story without being nerdy.

I feel like the internet has encouraged people to look into things and try to find issuesthat because people have a lot of opinions. I think it's really important to encourage artistic freedom. I think if you inhibit that, that could be dangerous.

I think being mediocre and in the middle would be the worst. It's more interesting to get strong reactions, and to have the mixture of people who get it and the people who don't get it. And to invite a dialogue.

There's something about being a teenager that's so sincere. Everything is more epic, like your first crush. I feel that it's not always portrayed very accurately.