I'm predisposed to never be in pure celebration mode.

When you're trying to paint a portrait of a very specific world, you're trying to show what makes the world different. So, sometimes it means exaggerating certain kind of aspects, but I don't think it's that important or it's that much of an issue as long as you get an emotional truth across.

It's interesting when you wind up distilling all your ambitions and your goals and dreams into one single person. It's giving that person a lot of power.

By the end of high school, I had this fork-in-the-road moment where part of me considered going to vocational music school to really pursue it.

The first thing I did as a child was draw. I wanted to make animated movies. I think Disney's 'Cinderella' was the first movie I ever saw. 'Peter Pan' was the first movie I ever saw in the movie theater. I grew up with 'Dumbo' and 'Pinocchio' and 'Sword in the Stone.' Those were the movies I wanted to make.

'Whiplash' was always the song I hated the most because it's a song designed to screw with drummers.

Practicing is not normally fun. Sometimes people say they're practicing, but they're really just enjoying themselves and the instrument. That's not real practice.

I wanted to look at the mentality that can breed that sort of intensity, that kind of cutthroat, pressure-cooker feeling, especially a form of music like jazz, that should be - or you'd think should be - all about liberation and improvisation and everything.

'Whiplash' scared me. I feel you should only do projects that scare you to some degree. I get motivated by those sorts of feelings.

I like a set to be a happy place, where people can feel free to experiment.

It's easy to show terrible people's behavior on screen, and we all just kind of nod and go, 'Isn't that terrible.' It's more interesting when you can show terrible behavior in the interest of something good.

Certainly, my manager Gary Ungar was the first person to give me any attention and hustle for me. This was back in 2009.

I love the idea of using film language similarly to how musicians use music - combining images and sounds in a way that they create an emotional effect.

As a drummer, you're always fighting for a level that you never quite attain.

I love being in the editing room and playing with tempo and with the rhythm of shots.

I don't have a PR rep. I live in Vermont.

There are a lot of different elements in play when you're remaking something people care about.

Now, everyone in movies is always rich, and they're always beautiful and graceful-looking.

If I can build a coalition of people who are interested in what I have to say and what I'm thinking, I hope they'll come with me if I want to go tell a story that doesn't have dinosaurs in it - which I plan to do.

Small moments can coexist with big moments and even back right up against each other.

Intimacy between humans need not be relegated to independent film. Real characters can exist no matter what the scale of a movie is.

There's no need for a female character that does things like a male character; that's not what makes interesting female characters in my view.

In high school, I worked at The Video Room in Oakland, California. It had the largest selection of laser discs in the Bay Area. One guy owned all of them.

I've always been someone with a small circle of friends. Each stretch of my life has been defined by one person who was just my person. We became inseparable for a certain number of years, and that time was our season, just the two of us making our way through life.