'Election' is a movie I'd give a leg to cross the director's name out and put mine in.
Being the son of a filmmaker, you are aware of a career as a director. You don't think of it as just movies, but as a life.
What I do feel is that 'Up in the Air' is the most indicative film of 2009. It is the portrait of 2009.
Being pregnant changes you as a human being and it gives you a whole lot of mixed feelings.
Everyone wants to be loved; everyone wants to know where they're going in life; everyone wants to have a sense of direction and feel the next day is going to be better than today. We just all deal with it in a different way.
I want my audiences to be as open-minded as my characters.
When I look at 'Napoleon Dynamite”s style I'm reminded of how I spoke when I was an eight-year-old boy. It was just like capturing the essence of, 'Duh!' It was just like the stuff that I would say when I was like eight, nine, ten years old.
I'm too big a fan of rhythm and editing. I'd much rather my editing be brave than my shooting.
Growing up sucks, doesn't it? I understand why people wouldn't want to get old - but it'd be one thing if we became a culture obsessed with eating right, doing yoga, going to therapy and becoming at one with ourselves. That be great. But we don't do that. We seem to be obsessed with all the wrong ways to stay young.
Selfishness, narcissism, being uncomfortable in your own skin, not feeling connected to the world around you, feeling dislocated from family and youth, having a strange relationship with your childhood - all those things feel really true to me.
Creating a wonderful drama is an art form, while comedy is just entertainment.
I think when you pay attention to the shots, you're aware of the fact that there's a director. Really, it's the director's job to disappear and allow the movie to just feel.
When I think of 'Nightmare on Elm Street,' there was a warmth to those teenagers that I related to. They were not aware that they were in the middle of a horror film, and I really loved those characters and I empathized with them.
When it comes to casting, I've been so lucky. I've worked with unbelievable actors who make me look better than I am and take the written word and make it honest.
I'm equally guilty of using technology - I Twitter, I text people, I chat. But I think there's something strangely insidious about it that it makes us think we're closer when in fact we're not seeing each other, we're not connecting.
I'm really specific in the way that I shoot. I've always had a very good sense of what I need in the editing room.
There are only so many movies you can direct. And yet there are movies that I want to make sure make it to the screen in as honest a way as possible.
I have one of the original 'Ghostbusters' guns in my house.
Really, it's the director's job to disappear and allow the movie to just feel.
Look, any guy who tells you that he didn't have some fears is lying. Of course, it's scary becoming a dad for a variety of reasons. That's not to say it isn't thrilling. It was. It was very exciting and in some ways was the greatest thing that's happened in my life. But it's also completely terrifying and you're saying goodbye to a portion of your life and that's just an emotional experience.
It’s funny, I can sit through the worst horror film ever made! But even a quite good romantic comedy.
Filmmaking is a completely imperfect art form that takes years and, over those years, the movie tells you what it is. Mistakes happen, accidents happen and true great films are the results of those mistakes and the decisions that those directors make during those moments.
I've always had an underdog perspective.
I find nice people kind of boring.
'Looper' is about what your 55-year-old self would tell your 25-year-old self over a cup of coffee. It's about finding love in the third act of your life. It's about overcoming trauma and the idea of true sacrifice.
