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

Books are a little better movies than just screenplays because there's more fat on the bone. There's more character development. There's more stuff to pick from.

When I'm writing a movie, it's usually pretty close to what the movie is going to be, which is just a luxury of being a writer-director.

Writers are so used to books being optioned and then the movie never happens.

Books provide context and allow you to think about things over time. Film is like writing haiku; there is an immense amount of pleasure in paring down and paring down. But it isn't the same.

I actually think I'm probably more interested in structure than most people who write screenplays, because I think about it.

There's a tacit belief that actors shouldn't write books, they're sort of allowed to direct movies but there will be a lot of skepticism, and they shouldn't do artwork or music. There are these invisible roadblocks to gain entree to these areas for actors, and you kind of have to crash through those invisible barriers.

I'm always interested to see what films are made of books. I kind of don't participate as a filmgoer in any kind of debate about what's better, the book or the movie. So I think it's interesting when people want to do it.

Being an actor, we're so dependent on the writers.

Some writers get snooty about what happens when their books are adapted to film, but I don't feel that way.