And that's just what I'm saying. I would never want to be like certain people, who change the way they dress, go out in disguise, wear a big floppy hat and dark shades. I would hate that.

There can be a blurry line between laughing at the expense of a character and laughing at the recognition of something painful and true. But blurry as it may be, it is nevertheless unmistakable, and sometimes the laughter I hear makes me wince.

Some people see me as dissecting my characters in some kind of heartless, coldblooded, analytical way, when in truth making these movies is a passionate, intensely emotional experience for me. I'm detached from the characters only to the degree that I have to be in order to write honestly about them.

I can't please everybody and I don't try to. If I can please myself that's enough. For the rest, I just hope for the best.

I love working with actors. I do.

So far, at least, I haven't found a way to tell my kind of stories without making them both sad and funny.

When I go to the movies, I do like to see things that surprise me, a little bit, in ways that seem truthful to the world that we live in.