As a first-time director, you act a lot like a teenager. I made decisions because I was hotheaded. My skin broke out. I was trying to understand who I am.

My family get so mad at me when they come over. All I'll have in is milk and eggs. I mainly keep film in my fridge - it's better for it; it stops it from going old. I'm bad at eating healthy; I usually just run across the street and get cheeseburgers.

Chanel is a brand that is so inspiring.

I feel like I can communicate much better using images than words.

Costumes say a lot about a character. When it came to 'Palo Alto,' it was important for me that the kids didn't look perfect. In most teen movies today, all of the clothes are expensive. I remember wearing a lot of dirty vintage clothes.

I love Serge Lutens orange blossom perfume; my mom got it for me. It's my favorite. It just smells clean.

In California, where you're allowed to drive at 16, you get so much freedom with that. It's a freedom to get outside of your parents' house and to do bad things.

With my aunt, I definitely can relate to how she makes a movie because she does it with her own demeanor, which isn't this loud presence.

When I was a baby, my mom was always bringing me onto set.

I enjoy seeing how my friends - Proenza Schouler, Zac Posen, Rodarte - use clothes to create their vision and art.

I was always a big James Franco fan.

My grandpa told me, 'Learn to love anxiety, because it never goes away in moviemaking.'

There is always something I gain from watching a movie, whether it's a silly romantic comedy or an art film.

Anyone can create and put stuff out there, so then as viewers and listeners, we have access to a lot of different unique view points.

Usually when I get nervous and don't know how to prepare for something, I just don't do anything at all, which is not necessarily the best idea.

My grandpa always tells me that 45-minute lunches are key because an army marches on its stomach.

I wanted to be a ballet dancer. I was bad - I'm not very coordinated. But I always wished I could have been a dancer.

As a teenager, I wanted to be sophisticated and avant-garde, and I was really judgmental. But when you're a teenager, you're fearless because you don't know the repercussions to anything.

The hardest thing on 'Palo Alto' was letting go because I kept working on it, trying to make it better.

As a first-time director, you act a lot like a teenager. I made decisions because I was hotheaded. My skin broke out. I was trying to understand who I am.

I like the pharmacy makeup. I always get stuck in that aisle... I've always liked looking at it.

If I'm not comfortable, I just look awkward.

My mentor in college was Stephen Shore. I loved his color palettes and his taking mundane things but finding them fascinating.

I went to a private school, and I struggled academically. It was really disheartening to always be considered bad at that.

I like the camera to be still and not very shaky and have everything happen within the frame.

When I graduated, I felt a little burned out on taking pictures after so many years of churning out so many for classes.

You can't host an Italian film festival without Marcello Mastroianni. It just doesn't feel right.

I normally wear jeans and sneakers, but given an occasion, I enjoy dressing up.

Movies are a collaboration, I feel, so I didn't think of myself as an authoritative figure as much.

I didn't go to film school. My Grampa always says just watch a lot of movies. He didn't go to film school; he went to theatre school. It's interesting to learn about the technical side of it, but I think it's more important to learn about writing and working with actors.

I think when you do things outside of what you're interested in, you meet people and get ideas to bring in to whatever it is you love doing the most.