I think if something resonates, even if it's surreal, it's because it is relatable and I think that that's a core issue for me.

I try to make things interesting and thought-provoking.

I want to create situations that give people something to think about.

I want to try it to see what it's like and see what my stuff looks like when I take it from inception to completion.

I wanted to deal with someone's idea of their relationship.

I was trying to figure out what a memory feels like.

I'm in my mind a lot. I live there.

I'm not into extreme sports or something. I just live a quiet life.

I'm trying to tell a story and do it truthfully.

I've had to deal, a lot, with my own sense of intimidation at meeting famous people - especially actors, but really any famous people.

My time on the set is the least of my involvement. Most of my time is in pre-production and post-production.

Sometimes I don't like the books that I'm reading.

There's theater in life, obviously, and there's life in theater.

As a writer, or as a filmmaker, you have to present yourself, and part of what yourself is is what you're interested in, or what you think is funny, or what you think is sad, or what you think is horrible.

There's no way to approach anything in an objective way. We're completely subjective; our view of the world is completely controlled by who we are as human beings, as men or women, by our age, our history, our profession, by the state of the world.

We try to organize the world, which isn't organized the way our brains want to organize it. We tell stories about the people in our lives, we project ideas onto them. We project relationships with people, we make our lives into stories. I don't think we can avoid doing that.

Before you start production, you have characters you have created without actors in mind, then all of a sudden you've got actors. They bring an enormous amount in creating these characters, and creating the dynamics between the characters that you've written.

Directing is a more pragmatic experience, where you have to deal with the restrictions of time and money that force you to make certain decisions you don't have to make when you're writing.

I can talk endlessly about characters, or why someone did this or that, and what that dynamic and interaction is. I really love it, and I think that actors really respond positively to the fact that I like to talk about that stuff, because I'm not sure that all directors do.

I do have some theatrical background. I've written plays and seen plays and read plays. But I also read novels. One thing I don't read is screenplays.