There's always some generational-guys-hanging-out movie that is made every few years, I think, and some of them are great.

Will Ferrell's made a lot of brilliant movies.

Friends of friends had bands in college or in their early 20s and had a moment where they had some kind of interest from a record label or manager. It's always interesting how people handle those decisions and those moments.

I'm interested in music as an extension of character.

There was a telemarketing job one summer in high school that I was rejected for. I still walk by the building that I actually had the interview in. It's still in New York, and I always think about that job and why I didn't get it.

My dad was a great movie companion. He wouldn't diminish 'The Jerk.' If I liked it, he liked it. He could see it through my eyes.

You can be aware that something is idiosyncratic, and give it to a character, but keep doing it.

It's always really special to be at the New York Film Festival, and always a real privilege.

That's the nice thing about collaborating with someone: Your work becomes a conversation.

I find a lot of writing happens when you're not actually at the computer. So I carry a notebook.

There is an isolated experience to being a director. It's very communal because there's a crew, but it's only you. You're the one on the hook.

I think sometimes bad behaviour can be liberating for certain people. They need to behave badly to find themselves - to go off path to find their path. You see it with kids all the time: They're testing boundaries, and I think that's healthy.

I wouldn't say 'Frances Ha' is autobiographical, but it's definitely very personal.

I think I was going through a lot of change at 27, but I didn't know it was happening until it was over.

I don't agree with the idea that my characters are unlikeable.

I think anxiety is dangerous, but it makes you think it's your friend.

Even fairly serious moviegoers can't shake this shadow of the corporate world.

When you're around your family, and you have that history and that shared language, you say things you'd be embarrassed to hear quoted back to you later.

Adaptations are fun for me because they connect to the idea of filmmaking I had when I was a kid. I would see a movie and think: 'I'm gonna make that movie.'

Anyone who's putting money into your movie would always rather you cast well-known people.

I get a lot of responses to my movies. Some people say, 'Oh, I thought it was really funny - I hope that's okay!' And my answer always is 'Yes. It's totally okay.'

I suppose some studio executive would say it's death for a comedy if people aren't all laughing in the same places, but I find with my movies that people laugh in very different places. I can't control it.

When I start a movie, there will be certain films that I watch again just because the vibe seems right.

I'm curious how people build up the codes that they live their life by, and how they come to think that that's the best way for them to function.

I think if we taped a lot of families that claim to be relatively normal, you'd be surprised when you hear some of the things said.

I made two movies very young, and then I had trouble getting a movie made, and so - which was both, I think, a plus and a minus. It was a minus because it made me unhappy.

I really like my first movie a lot, 'Kicking and Screaming.' I think it's a - I'm very pleased and proud of that movie, but it wasn't the - it wasn't 'Citizen Kane' right out of the box, you know? It wasn't 'Sex, Lies and Videotape.'

I've run into more people walking in L.A. than if I drove. Because you stand out so much if you walk. People from my past have stopped their cars and said, 'Hey!' But if I was in a car, they never would've seen me.

I think it's always interesting how music means different things to different people, and people who overthink it are looking to in some ways show off with music, versus people who just respond to a song and decide to sing it.

I think all my movies are about transitions to some degree.

I do like having books on my shelves. I do value that life.

I always viewed life as material for a movie.

I know people who are incredibly successful who still dress the way they did when they were 18, just because they still think that's how they look good.

Being articulate, my parents could make anything sound reasonable.

I kind of live like a writer. I get up and I write. I've done that my whole life.

Peter Bogdanovich is a good friend.

I watch movies all the time, so it's hard to pick certain specific directors that have inspired me in the aggregate.

I didn't train in directing; I talk to actors the way I talk to anybody.

Being funny, in some ways, is about being connected to psychology.

I don't know any writer of fiction who enjoys trying to point out or dissect whatever they produced with strangers and let them go through it and pick apart what's real and what isn't.

A film set becomes its own family anyway, and all family dynamics come out during a shoot. The trick is hiring people who know how to handle that.

I love black-and-white movies that are about contemporary subjects.

I've had great experiences or joyful experiences making a movie that people found very disturbing.

It's going to start really interfering with your quality of life, your health, if you don't adjust to life as it's happening to you.

Wes Anderson's films, 6-year-olds are crazy about them.

A lot of black-and-white films generally have a color version that will be used for TV.

I try to procrastinate, if I can, productively, like I'll work on something else as procrastination. Or I take a walk. Because often I find, if you get out, more things come to you.

I'm always looking for overlooked post-Dylan singer-songwriter records from the '70s.