There are certain societal laws that are just accepted, things that are arbitrary. I think the fun thing about psychotics is that they question that. It can be very freeing... like, my ego or my individuality trumps society's law.

I'm just trying to give the best human expression that I can to any particular genre, which could be comedy, could be drama, could be horror, could be thriller.

I have one thing to say about the mental asylum. I've romanticized two things in my life, and both have fallen short. One is being in a mental asylum. Really, really not as fun as you think it is.

People are three-dimensional. They're not good or bad. They're not righteous or unrighteous. They are a million different things.

In this business, certainly it's a lot crazier for women than it is for men, but there's such a thing where there's a lot of judgment on the way you look and on your body.

I think that's what 'Stranger Things' does, it opens you up - it has a real beating heart to it.

It was always my dream to be a New York theater actor. I never thought I was pretty enough to be on camera.

Some people get very successful for something they're very cynical about - like Alec Guinness in 'Star Wars.' He thought it was ridiculous. Whereas for me, I'm so proud of 'Stranger Things.' I'm so proud of everyone's work in it. And it's become so successful. So for those two to meet is incredible.

I'm terrified of the ocean. I think it's beautiful and magical, but I never go in. That deep, dark water, with no understanding of what goes on behind it - I think that's a metaphor for a lot of things.

If I was in high school, and we had Twitter, and Harrison Ford was on Twitter, I totally would have tweeted him and asked for him to take my high school photos with me.

I don't associate success with happiness, and I don't take it to heart, like, 'Oh, I'm so special.'

I'm normally a pretty loquacious, kind of fun person.

I'm a man. I'm not gonna wear dad jeans or whatever you call them.

I'll put 'Stranger Things' up there with the best of it. I think it's such a profound show - it's very subtle in the way that it tells its story, but it's very effective. Every time I watch it, I feel something, which is very rare for me.

I think that storytelling, at its essence, allows us to feel like we all suffer the same insanity or a similar insanity of existence: that nobody escapes scot-free. We're all going to wind up - at the best-case scenario - 80, 85, 90, broken, in pain, and feeling like it was all a dream and not really understanding the point of any of it.

I think people feel like other people are very different from them... And that people who are different from them are actually sort of unworthy of the same rights or empathy. I don't understand that.

The perils of success at a young age is being afraid to make a mistake.

I tend to find that movies have become so slick that I have trouble identifying with the characters.

The Duffer Brothers are so attentive to story and detail while being wildly respectful of me and what I bring to the process.

There is a lot of good television out there, stuff that is better for you than 'Stranger Things,' that, critically, people would be like, 'This is an important show,' but I would press you to find a show that's more watchable. That's hard to do.

I've always been passionate about the stories I want to tell.

I grew up doing regional Shakespeare, and when Hamlet sees the ghost of his father, there's something about that that you don't really do in film anymore.

You gotta do things your own way. You have to find your own path. You have to take what appeals to you and leave all the rest.

I can like Jack Nicolson's Joker, and I can like Heath Ledger's Joker. There's other Jokers I don't have to like.