Where The Wild Things Are we were asking a lot of a 9-year-old kid. We were asking a lot of any actor.

It's fun when you start a movie, because it's kind of like you get to go Christmas shopping... you get to make your wish list and you start thinking about what each character needs.

Don't differentiate between 'This is a job' and 'This is what I'm doing for fun.' It's all simultaneous.

I think, as you're growing up, your emotions are just as deep as they are when you're an adult. You're ability to feel lonely, longing, confused or angry are just as deep. We don't feel things more as we get older.

I like hiring people based on a feeling - this person gets it - rather than what they've done in the past.

I always aspire to that, where it feels like the film was made by the characters as opposed to the filmmakers. I try to be invisible.

I am better at math than spelling.