“I think there is something beautiful in reveling in sadness. The proof is how beautiful sad songs can be. So I don’t think being sad is to be avoided. It’s apathy and boredom you want to avoid. But feeling anything is good, I think. Maybe that’s sadistic of me.”

“If you're going to put yourself above everybody else, you might end up alone.”

“When I started editing on my home computer, I said to myself, 'Well, I could be at home studying for a class or I could be at home editing a video.'”

“When I arrived at Columbia, I gave up acting and became interested in all things French. French poetry, French history, French literature.”

“A lot of people, most people who are working, they do it for money. And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that. It so happens that I made a lot of money already, so I don't have to worry that much about it. I wouldn't fault anybody for doing it for the money, but it doesn't interest me right now.”

“As soon as you are trying to be funny or dramatic, that's when things start feeling fake and boring.”

“Hollywood has the idea that movies have to be dumb. But especially movies for or about teenagers have to be really dumb!”

“Even today, in our progressive times, in most movies that come out, the men have to have biceps and the women have to be thin or something.”

“Every day I've got to be thankful that I am alive, and you never know - the cliche is, I guess, you could get hit by a bus tomorrow, so you'd better be at peace with whatever you got going at the moment.”

“Storytelling in general is a communal act. Throughout human history, people would gather around, whether by the fire or at a tavern, and tell stories. One person would chime in, then another, maybe someone would repeat a story they heard already but with a different spin. It's a collective process.”

“I was studying for the SAT's and learning lines.”