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The area of teenage life is not necessarily rarefied; we've all gone through that period. It's not as rarefied as a western or a space adventure or a gangster film, but it has its own dynamic.

My mythic version of America is very much about parents and children, and in my experience, the suburban setting is where that particular drama plays out. Which isn't to say that there aren't parents and children in cities or on farms. I just don't know them.

Adolescents are attracted to tragic heroes. That's why rock stars dress like homeless people. Adolescence is a fall. It's when every child becomes an orphan.

The parents of teenagers would love to have a car that won't go very far or go very fast. They could just cruise around the neighborhood, drive it to school, see their friends, plug it in overnight.

Teenagers are kinda the same wherever you find them in America.

I was raised in Chicago and I guess that was one of the special breeding grounds for gangsters of all colors. That was the Detroit of the gangster world. The car industry was thugs.

In real life, one of my friends was killed in a car accident during our sophomore year.

My focus has kind of been on teenagers, you know, and I think we've got a huge crisis right now in America, among our teens.

Most movies are made today for teenage boys. Once in a while a good one comes along.

I grew up in the suburbs and basically associate the suburbs with cultural death.