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It was comical because you're at a firing range, all these people are so seriously shooting their little guns.

It was all that stuff about taking your parents' car when you're 13, sneaking booze into rock shows and ditching school with your friends. I could relate to that as a former teenager, rather than as a present parent.

When you are 15, everything is such high stakes, even tiny things. I think because of that, it is funny but sad at the same time.

I wasn't driving down the wrong side of the street, smoking marijuana, waving my gun out the window.

I grew up going to school and high school and then shooting a movie for a few months. It's an odd way to grow up and is kind of forced maturity.

Staring down the barrel of a gun is the scariest thing you could ever experience. It's not funny. It's not for the movies.

At 18, I guarded the parking lot at the Catholic Church bingos. Now, my dad made sure I could take care of myself. I carried a Smith and Wesson .357 Magnum - that gun weighed more than I did!

I think video games and that stuff should be as violent as possible, but age-appropriate. It should be realistic. When it's not realistic you run into kids running around shooting people and not realizing the consequences.

I did some pretty bad things as a teenager. When I was 13, I took my friend's mom's car out for a joyride, and I actually managed to hit somebody else's car. No one was hurt, but needless to say, I didn't get behind the wheel again until I had my driver's license.

'Thirteen' was really hard on my family. I wrote this movie about them and their flaws and imperfections and what it was like growing up. It was from one kid's perspective and not a well rounded one. You get older, and it's like, 'How dare I portray my father as being a totally vacant, careless schmuck?'