Deer are like dogs. Except for Bambi, they’re pretty personality-less.
I don’t really get attached to anything. I’m pretty brutal about cutting stuff. With each successful movie, I’ve discovered anything that’s not connected to the immediate story is going to be cut out of it.
I have to go back to vinyl every once in awhile, even if my kids don’t want to hear it. I’m much more likely to be listening to Wilco or the Avett Brothers.
I don’t want to be ordinary. I’m willing to do the work. I’m willing to suffer the indignities of comedy because I want to be great. I don’t want to just be good. I want to be great.
There are people that entertainment is something they do at the end of a long hard day at work, and they want to be entertained and have it over quickly. They’re like, “Entertain me fast!”
Parents don’t realize that when they teach you about the Holocaust too early, it ruins you for life.
I feel the responsibility to make things which on some level have something positive to say.
Every time I’m in editing, there’s always a moment where you think, “Maybe this should be six or seven minutes shorter, but I’m losing character and story that I think is important.” When I like things, I’m not in a rush for them to end.
There are people who like short movies, and I think they should just watch our movies on DVD because they can pause, go to the bathroom, eat dinner, and come back to it.
When people lose their jobs, they can either get another job or be entrepreneurs. In the music industry, a lot of people have attempted the latter by starting their own labels, but in the age of digital downloads, it’s very difficult to succeed.
It’s funny when people debate about music, because they get so passionate about what they enjoy.
I think people like Lena Dunham really opened up the door to what was possible, and they’ve inspired young women to go into filmmaking and writing and directing and acting in a way that maybe they didn’t before, because now there is a path and there are jobs.
I’m just trying to be truthful and collaborate with people who have interesting things to say.
When the entire country was watching one show there was a major discussion happening; is it possible for that to happen in a 1 million channel universe?
When you make a movie, you just send it off into the world. You never actually live it with the crowd.
If you watch the arcs of so many comedians, at some point, they just become themselves.
The thing that ruined your life makes you good at your work. And then you get rewarded at work, so you don’t bother to fix it in your life.
There’s nothing more fun than debating and defending your taste in music.
I love Coldplay. I love Steely Dan – Steely Dan’s probably one of my top three bands of all time.
I used to scream at everybody at the beginning of my career. I’d get really emotional. I’d project all my issues about my parents and safety onto the executives, so every conversation where they gave a note was life or death and you don’t love me.