With 'Brick,' I wrote the script when I was 23 and didn't make the movie until I was 30.

Belgrade has kind of a Dublinesque, dear-dirty charm.

My favorite sci-fi always uses its hook to amplify some bigger theme or idea - some emotional thrust.

Much of directing [a movie] is not directing but just listening and being present in the moment and just keeping your eyes open.

If you make something interesting, inevitably not everybody is going to like it.

You go from these high hopes when you're writing to just a desperate want of not making a complete fool of yourself by the end of it.

All my favorite movies are somebody else's least favorite movie.

You come out of each movie just thinking, "God, if we can fool them into letting us make just one more, we can get it right."

Writing sucks. I think it's terrible. Writing is not fun, and don't trust anyone who claims to enjoy it. Liars!

Writing in a lot of ways feels more like excavation than construction. It feels like you're uncovering this thing bit by bit, discovering what it is, instead of constructing it upwards.

Showing your movie to an audience... it's like your kid doing a piano recital. 'Just let it not fail. Please.

If you cannot change your condition, change your perception.

What we call consciousness is our ability to perceive stimuli and to file it within the parameters of our personal story.

The failures that we have are sometimes expensive educations.

I love those films where I feel the director's confidence - where he doesn't need to overdo it with the shots and the cuts.

Neither smiles nor frowns, neither good intentions nor harsh words, are a substitute for strength.

Figure out what you believe in and what you're willing to fight for, then figure out what your special talents are and apply them to it.

Computers are useless - all they can give you are answers.

I love it when artists talk about process! I love the movie Comedian.

As a black man, you run from the cops. It's different now, but back when I was coming up, you run.

A community of people, that's the really what art school is.