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.

If you compromise what you're trying to do just a little bit, you'll end up compromising a little more the next day or the next week, and when you lift your head you're suddenly really far away from where you're trying to go.

Music is thousands and thousands of years old and I don't think that basic, primitive connection to the language of music ever changes.

If I can make one generalised statement, and generalised statements are never entirely true, nobody wants to be talked down to, kids included.

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

What the world is like from a nine-year-old's point of view? My memory is that nothing is explained to you, you've got to try to figure it out, pick up clues from the people around you, try to figure it out from their reactions.

When I first moved up to San Francisco to write Where The Wild Things Are, I had a couple moments where I talked to somebody, and they're like, "Oh, I love that book. I love this part of it," or, "This is what it means to me." And it's like, "Well, I don't know. I guess that's not what I'm making the movie about." But very early on, I don't know, we sort of let go of that fear.