"…and then [in Mean Streets], Robert De Niro; his kind of twitchy reverence to this wonderfully insane underworld. Somehow, the two [films] will always be forever linked in my mind. Whoever programmed those two movies together… it was at a moment when, in an art context, I was beginning to make short films. So film was definitely becoming a medium that was intriguing to me, and I hadn’t quite made a complete transition yet, but I found those two films just extraordinary, and they opened up a kind of unimaginable landscape for me. That kind of great irreverence, and intensity, and strength of purpose in those characters."

"I read Little Women every time I break up with a guy. I’ve been turning to Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy for heartbreak solace since I was 13 and found out the guy I liked was interested in someone else. I’d go home and cry to my sisters, and then I’d read Louisa May Alcott. There’s some profound comfort in that book for me – Jo becomes a writer and finds her heart in a most unexpected place. Above all, we learn what Jo has always known: No matter who the guy is or how great he is, no one loves you like your sisters."

"It’s like a weird musical. That is actually one of Christopher’s favorite movies that he did, unlike the last one. It was not a very successful movie when it came out but it’s really quite a hypnotic and amazing film I think. It’s like a weird dream. Some of these films I can’t kind of watch over, because they play in your mind like a dream. It reminds me of growing up in Burbank. Things are quite normal on the surface but underneath they’re not quite what they seem. I found this film to be such a strange mixture; the elements are very odd."