"Even when you're making a movie about life, death is a presence, and I guess it's part of my dramatic viewpoint. I'm not sure why exactly."

"There is a common theme, though, in the stories I have told, which are usually associations of characters or families that are formed outside of a family circle."

"Death Valley is really wide-open - it's bigger than Rhode Island - and it's less a part of California than an ungoverned territory, so there's lots of weird cops-and-robbers stuff going on."

"The dark comedies tend to be in a non-releasable area. There can be romantic comedies. There can be dramas. But there's no 'dark comedy' inbox for the advertising."

"We Jews have a special attachment to the Book. The study of page after page in tomes yellowing with age was obligatory."

"I really have created a family. I work with the people I love, I travel with them, I make films with them, and I'm in an office with them. So in a weird way - I know I haven't birthed a child - I feel that I'm a part of creating a family. It's a tribe. I love that word."

"I would go to work from 9 to 6, go home, nap for two hours, then write from 8 to 2 a.m."

"For me, Lancome was more than just a brand. There was something very nostalgic about the name, about the whole story."