My time on the set is the least of my involvement. Most of my time is in pre-production and post-production.
I was trying to figure out what a memory feels like.
I just try to be honest, because I think that’s part of my job description as a writer.
The end is built into the beginning.
I will be dying and so will you, and so will everyone here. That’s what I want to explore. We’re all hurtling towards death, yet here we are for the moment, alive. Each of us knowing we’re going to die, each of us secretly believing we won’t.
I spend a lot of time in preproduction working with authors, and a lot of time in postproduction.: editing, music, all that sort of stuff. Casting. On the set there’s not a lot for me to do.
I try when I’m writing to leave enough “space” for people to have their own interpretation, and not to direct it toward one conclusion. Then the audience would not be reacting, because they are being preached to or lectured at. I don’t have that much to say that I think people should listen to me.
I like for people to figure things out for themselves. It’s not like I have the right answer, but if I have a visceral reaction to something, I’m sure that other people will, too.
The sad thing about working on a movie is that you can never see the movie.
I don’t think the world objectively exists the way we think it exists. There’s a constant sort of storytelling process.
When you approach middle age, lots of stuff happens. Your body is aging, you’re watching people around you get sick, you’re watching people die, your mortality becomes very present at that point in your life.
I’m Jewish, and my family is Jewish. I was very interested in Woody Allen when I was growing up, but I don’t think of myself as a Jewish writer. I’m more from suburbia, American suburbia. I’m more from the ’70s than I am from Judaism.
It’s good when someone comes to a book or a movie and interacts with it. It’s the difference between an illustration and a painting. An illustration serves a specific purpose, and a painting is something you can immerse yourself in.
You’re dealing with the body, and you’re dealing with bodily functions. We romanticize everything about people in movies.
I want to do my own thing, and I’m trying to get closer to realizing that as a filmmaker.
As I’m writing, I start to see connections, and themes I didn’t see, and that sparks other things. So then I go back and rewrite things or alter them. It’s a combination of intuition and a lot of finessing. It becomes a combination of the rational and the irrational.
I do a lot of things intuitively. I’m not often consciously aware of what I’m doing. It’s like in a dream: There’s something going on that’s powerful but you don’t know exactly why.
I often have a theme in mind when I’m starting. I know that I want everything to be in a world of, say, evolution, or guilt.
I’m interested in art, and I think about the process of making art. It’s part of my personality, my experience of the world, so it ends up in the movies. It’s where my head is.
David Lynch is very important to me, and he does dreamlike movies, but my dreams are not like David Lynch’s dreams. I have no interest in copying anybody’s work. It would never occur to me to want this to look like someone else’s thing.