Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I take big risks, but I'm not reckless about it.
You can repeat things because it's on a set and there are actors. But if it's a great moment and you don't capture it, it's rare to get that moment again.
The world is a very troubled, very chaotic place. It's a very cold place. It's a very unjust and unfair place in many ways. [As a moviemaker] I have very limited ability to have an impact over all that.
As a moviemaker, I'm able to have a little impact on the socio-political landscape and to reach a large audience around the world. That inspires me. That is something I'm inspired by and it's what I inspire to.
I don't want to just add another DVD to the pile. So I think, 'Is this going to have an impact and some lasting value? Is it worth it for me to spend two years of my middle-aged life on this?' They're my criteria, and I think that's led me to more urgent projects.
The major caveat in all of comedy is that it's all instinctive. There's no true criteria. There is no right or wrong. Ultimately, often I'm surprised at what an audience will or will not laugh at. I have to stay very, very open to an audiences first exposure to that material and how they react to it.
I grew up in Brooklyn, New York. I grew up in a very Jewish neighbourhood and thought the whole world was like that. My parents were secular, but I went to a very Orthodox Jewish school, and I really got into it. I found it all fascinating, and I was just kind of really attracted to the metaphysical questions.
I never sat down and wrote, but what I do is kind of act as a dramaturge for the piece. I am sitting with the writers. I'm discussing ideas with the writers and concepts. We're debating and having a dialectic where we are taking a lot of different ideas and trying to synthesize them into the right idea. I'm very much a part of that process. That's my job as the director.