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I wasted too much time in my twenties. I worked, but I would do theater in the evening, and during the day I would surf and do irascible things. And then, for some reason, as I got closer to my thirties, I thought, 'Okay Joel, you've wasted enough time.'

I feel like I had to learn how to take care of myself and find out what made me happy aside from just making films.

I was frustrated because I couldn't get going, as I was trying to figure out how to make films. I had various jobs, I taught a SAT class, I was a bartender, I had a day job at an office and was making short films.

I got so much out of 'The To-Do List.' This is a joke that I say about myself sometimes, in terms of my film career: I feel like I'm always playing the kid in serious adult movies. So, for me, it was so wonderful to suddenly be working with other people my age who were doing this on film.

I didn't do a movie until I was almost 30. I'm grateful for that because it gave me a chance to be an adult in the world and do work in the regional theater that very few people cared about. I loved it and I wanted to do that stuff.

I got into film-making because I was interested in making entertaining movies, which I felt there was a lack of.

I really tried to make movies I wanted to see. I thought that if I was good enough, somebody would always need me.

And I discovered after a couple years that I really didn't miss making movies.

For me, making films is about trying to work something out by myself in quite a lonely way. I find the whole thing very lonely really.