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There's a tremendous intellectual fervor among independent filmmakers, and that has to be cultivated.

The greatest filmmakers are not the ones who put everything in; they're the ones who can figure things to leave out, and in doing so, invite your participation.

I am definitely writing letters to lots of directors in my mind when I'm making a film. I'm chasing Woody Allen and Godard and Milos Forman and all these people.

As an author, you hope for a director and a cast that will make something wonderful out of your book.

I mean, there are many other directors who are probably both more skilled and excited to adapt novels or work within certain genre conventions. I'd like to do that kind of work someday, but for better or worse I'm too drawn by my own material.

I admire directors so much, I find them incredible: they manage such a huge number of people of different characters, think of the money involved.

There's such good writing now on television and I don't see a lot of great writing on films sadly.

One of the most interesting aspects of the film project was collaborating with so many people - directors, filmmakers, and writers - over a five-year period. I learned that there are two components to this.

All the directors that I've had the opportunity to work with are fantastic.

Really, what I'm doing is an attempt to continue the best work of the people I adore: Francis Coppola and Scorsese and Robert Altman and Stanley Kubrick and those amazing directors whose work I grew up with and loved.