"My brother wrote this book — I had to put it on my list. It's a thriller, but it's also about the disintegration of a family and the ways in which our desire to protect one another can be destructive. I always thought writers were the bravest people, because they seemed to reveal so much of themselves in their work. My brother gave me an understanding of the process. He can take his experience and turn it 190 degrees, and it becomes something else, which is what I do with acting. He's made the art of writing not as foreign to me. I'm still so impressed by people who can create certain feelings on a page, but it was a revelation to see that what my brother and I do is, in a way, not so different."

"Throughout my life, I’ve carried with me the image of a woman crying in the shower. At various times when I have experienced loss or grief, I think about that woman and find comfort in her image. Not because she is experiencing deep sadness but because I know how she feels, she knows how I feel, and that kind of recognition makes the feelings manageable enough, so they don’t swallow us up. It wasn’t until I rewatched The Big Chill after not seeing it for over twenty years—and after making my own film, The Intervention, which was inspired by the way The Big Chill made me feel—that I realized that the image in my mind was of Glenn Close in this movie. Sometimes a film can become a part of your DNA, and this one definitely has for me."