If a woman gets insomnia, you never know where you're going to find her furniture the next morning. It's primal. We have so little we can control, but we can perfect the way our room looks.
Nicole Holofcener
I don't think of myself in a political way, though I am definitely a feminist.
I'm being photographed, worrying about my hair - and yet here I am, I've directed a feature film, why do I care about the way I look? Who cares? Does Tim Burton care? Does Joel Coen?
I'm sure it's more difficult for women to make movies, especially because, in general, the kind of movies women want to make aren't necessarily going to be blockbusters. But you know, there are so few women in so many positions of power.
It's harder to take care of kids than it is to make a movie.
To say you want to be a director is to risk sounding obnoxious, pretentious, arrogant, and I think women are more fearful of sounding that way than men are.
I hear people talk in my head, and I write it down. I choose where they live and how they dress to be real.
The stories that I want to tell are completely, well, somewhat autobiographical. It's completely based on my own self-absorption issues and problems.
I think I'm a good writer. I think I have my own voice, which is unique to everyone - everyone has their own voice; if they would just write from a vulnerable embarrassing place, it's going to be universal, and it's going to be entertaining. Because everyone is the same, and everyone is unique.
I'm a director, but I gotta have the hair, the makeup and the heels. My mother would be appalled if I didn't dress up.
My movies make a profit, but obviously not a fortune.
I would still encourage somebody, if they wanted to make a movie, to just go take a movie camera. That's clearly been shown to work.
I'm not a producer and I don't even know the places my producer goes to, thankfully.
I'm somebody's ex-wife, and I did things that drove him nuts. And now I'm somebody's girlfriend, for many years, and I've got different things that drive him nuts.
If the script is right, I'm not above doing a movie with broad appeal.
I'll write a character with a certain actor in mind, but then once I start casting, I have to forget about who I pictured.
When I hear that a project takes place out of town, the material better be terrific, and it has to come at the right time. My kids are getting older, so it's getting easier, but being a mother - it's a difficult thing to juggle.
I'm still shooting on low budgets, though none of my movies has lost money, and I rarely get sent anything that stars a guy or is a thriller or is seriously dramatic. And I would love the opportunity to do those things.
I definitely feel like a native New Yorker. My personality was formed there.
I have a stack of scripts that I've read - I'm in the lucky position where I get offered things - but I haven't wanted to direct many of them.
Catherine Keener really gets me. She and I have such a shorthand together.
I'm willing to give up a little control but not a lot. So I say I want the money, but when push comes to shove, I'm not sure I'll be able to compromise in order to make the big studio movie. Maybe something in between would be okay, like a low-budget studio film.
I don't have a drawer full of ideas. I kind of look around and take notes and wonder what could actually be a whole movie. And each time, I think I'm going to do it more commercial this time; I'm going to get a big budget and make it. But I always come up with some small idea.
I always had good friends, but I did not feel like a cool girl, ever.
I rarely need career advice because I don't have a career. No, that's not true. I can't really go far away while my kids are living with me.
Hollywood is lacking realness in their female characters. I don't think I'm the only one who thinks that and wants to change it.
When I'm creating characters, I just want to create characters that I can relate to, and be as honest about them as people as I can be. That's what I want to see when I go to the movies.
If you keep the situations real, the characters' behavior will be real and honest, too. If they're suddenly robbing a bank and exchanging snappy dialogue, well, I wouldn't even know how to write that.
Hollywood always likes to create a star.
I went to NYU for a year and a half, and I graduated from there and then years later went to Columbia for graduate school.
I think that sometimes, romantic comedies have to be really broad, and that the plot of people falling in and out of love or whatever is not enough. 'Enough Said' had that stuff, but I wanted it to be fun and funny while also grounded in reality.
When I was going away to school, I had a friend who took a liking to my family just a little too much. We couldn't get her out of the house. It took me saying to my parents, 'I don't want her here. I'm feeling replaced.'
Filming is a funny combination of having a good time and not being able to wait until it's over.
The fact that I get to write and direct my own personal story is an amazing thing.
I'm not crazy about having my picture taken. I'd rather talk my head off.
