“Even back in the ’90s, I shot certain things on something that wasn’t digital then, but it was on VHS with a smaller camera and we would up it to film.”

You have a movie and it proves itself and then certain things happen.

First of all, just to get Diner made would have been an achievement in that I got a chance to direct.

There was a time when I said, “I’m going to go do a television thing,” after doing all these theatrical films, and heard, “Television? Why are you going to go back to television?” It’s an interesting place.

I don’t know that you can do an absurdist film and just have everybody embrace it in terms of filling out cards. I just don’t think it happens. So you have to prepare an audience.

I don’t know that you can do it as a satire. I mean, the business is crazy enough as it is. It’s like doing Wag The Dog – we took a thing that was almost completely absurd on one level, and then ultimately those things came about.

You do understand that you can’t force the situation, but in terms of how you edit, you can define that to take the audience along, whether it be a storyline or a character moment that we can play out. The more experience you’ve had, the more beneficial it is, period.

The interesting thing about movies, it’s not always – y’know, you have to have structure etc and all those things, but an audience responds, in many ways, we walk away and certain things stay in our heads that are memorable.

I play around with human things, human relationships and that, and allow that kind of talk to work in that way, on that level.

No one really has the power, and everybody’s trying to get through the day, and everybody’s nervous and desperate.

I got a chance to work with Mel Brooks on two of his films: Silent Movie and High Anxiety.

I would give the cameras to the kids in the swimming pools and they would play with them, and then I would collect them and we would upload it. If you’re in the process, you’re there.

I think when Sarah Palin opened her mouth and started talking, the more she talked, the less appealing she became.

A lot of time mistakes are very interesting – you look for the behaviour that’s not the one you expect.

I got involved with an acting school and studied for a couple years. They used to have improv exercises that you would work on and you would do improvs.

I do know when you look at some ballplayer and all of a sudden he is the size of a truck something is wrong.

There’s no downside to having too much experience.

I had to get my camera to register things that were more important than how poor they were–their pride, their strength, their spirit.

The camera relieves us of the burden of memory.

I admire a person who, for the love of art, is able to take off their clothes in front of a camera. But I’m not capable, I’m too cowardly for that.

Maybe law enforcement would like the ability to turn on the camera on your Mac.

The camera creates a magical transformation. It’s not enough to exist; we must chronicle that existence. …

Cameras are a lifesaver for very shy people who have nowhere else to hide. Behind a lens they can disguise the fact that they have nothing to say to strangers.

It’s kind of a hybrid, half movie, half play, presented in a proscenium fashion – the camera’s on one side of the line, the set on the other, the audience sitting behind the cameras.

I actually think film and TV are sort of the same thing now. To me they’re all motion pictures. There’s a camera, a script, other actors and a director. Doing a sitcom is a little different.