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As far as I can tell, most actors' main motivation is self-doubt and neuroses.

I went to a Chekhov play with my grandmother, and at the end, I was talking about how the first act was so boring. And my grandmother didn't see that at all. I realized it was because I need, like, the constant images changing. I wrote a paper about this.

Well, when you're playing a role, you have to think, 'What is ultimately motivating the character?'

Motivations are too tangled and complex.

It would be a big mistake to think that Chekhov was a natural, that he did not have to work for his effects and singular style.

What's been lost is allowing cinema to be artful, playful, to have ambiguity, to have form, to be contemplative, to wish to be art. This slightly timeless approach to reality, like Chekhov in literature, where you look at all humanity and try to find what's transcendent.

Besides the mistakes that are pointed out, I love the way readers become involved with the characters. When readers start asking about character motivations instead of concentrating on the special effects, it means you're connecting with them on a personal level.

I think probably I've been influenced by Chekhov and Walt Disney, if you see what I mean.

There is no motivation higher than being a good writer.

One of the things I have tried to do with this book and with all of them really is avoid that simple, easy, reductionist view of motivation and to show we do things for a complex net of reasons, a real braid of reasons.