SPIKE JONZE

You have to be involved and relate to the characters in order to make a film that is true emotionally.

I loved Fugazi, the D.C. hardcore band, because they always did everything themselves. They had their own label, and the CDs always cost nine dollars, the T-shirts always cost eight dollars, the shows always cost five dollars, no major label.

There are a lot of kids in the world. People seem to keep having them.

Kids are so fiercely opinionated, that if they love the Harry Potter books and they go see the movie, they'll be the first to say, 'That was wrong! They didn't get that right!' They're storytellers themselves. They're critics. They're going to have the critical opinion.

I've got to say, I've probably seen a lot more of the Three Stooges than of the Marx Brothers.

I skated and rode bikes on ramps, and my mom was always super supportive. She was one of the only divorced moms in the neighborhood, so all the other parents looked down upon her for letting her kids do that kind of thing.

I'm always amazed when any actor can decipher my direction.

After 'Where the Wild Things Are,' I guess I felt more confident as a writer.

I think the way kids create is so inspiring. They're drawing a picture? They love the picture they drew; they're not tortured about it.

We can empathize as deeply as we can empathize.

Obviously, movies and music videos are different because they're different lengths, and in a movie, you have more time to explore an idea. But I feel like they're all the same, really.

I worked at this bike shop called Rockville BMX, and I started going on this summer tour with this one company. One summer, we ended up in California, and I got to hang out with the guys who made 'Freestylin' - Andy Jenkins and Mark Lewman.

I've done a couple of interviews, and I realized how uncomfortable I felt as soon as I started talking.

Any conversation I have with anybody that's real is always revealing and inspiring.

I respect people that are die-hard film people, but I started on video. I started on Hi8 video and mini-DV, and I made skate videos. So, I love film, and I love the way it looks, but I also love the way crappy video looks, or VHS. I've always been a fan of whatever the look is that's appropriate for what the feeling is.

Me and my friends had BMX magazines and skate magazines, and I was a photographer who made skate videos.

Big emotions that are unexplained are really scary. At least to me.

I think the way Win Butler writes, I really identify with it. He writes very emotionally and very cinematically, and I just connect with his sensibility.

Writing is hard.

The market groups and demographics said, 'Teenage guys don't read magazines.'

The world is becoming nicer and easier, but that doesn't mean we are any less lonely or any more connected.

As a director, you never get to watch other directors work, and you also don't get to collaborate with other directors that much.

Nicolas Cage, I would love to work with him again. He's just a fearless madman. He'll go anywhere you want to go. He would not say 'no' to anything.

If I can make one generalised statement, and generalised statements are never entirely true, nobody wants to be talked down to, kids included.

I wasn't a film kid.