I think romance is a tool comedy is a tool and drama is a tool. I really just want to tell stories that challenge the viewer move people make you laugh perhaps push an idea about being open-minded but never settle on a genre or an opinion. I hate genre. I like movies that are original in their approach.

There are movies that require fantasy and slightly more fantastical acting. Lines that are good for certain movies in real life circumstances would be absolutely unbelievable things to really say and you would look at these people like they're freaks for conversing that way. But somehow for certain styles of movies it works and it seems fine.

I have three kids who like Harry Potter so I was sort of aware of it. You can't really move from it: it's on buses in stores it's everywhere. One of my kids has read the books the other two are too small but they like the movies.

How many movies do you see when you can say this director really knew what film he wanted to make? I can count them on the fingers of one hand.

Woody Allen is really the ultimate. I love that he believed in himself enough to do what he did. And I have that same feeling - that there's nobody that looks like me in movies nobody would cast me as a romantic lead but I want to do it and I feel confident that I can.

People talk about mumblecore but I prefer bumblecore hyper-realistic bee movies about how bees really are.

You go back to those films of the '40s and '50s and hear the dialogue the way the people played off each other - the wordplay. I think we've really lost that in movies.

I think being self-referential is really narcissistic. Who's to say anybody's even thinking of you that much? But some of these movies that I've done people still recite lines to me even 20 years later.

I like the George Romero films which were really great social satire movies really twisted.

My movies just kind of sneak up on you. I don't have to worry too much about what everybody is going to say. Anyway I really don't pay attention to what the world says about my movies. I just care about what my buddies think.

I really like children to watch my movies.

I think that's what distinguishes Schmidt really. In the movies now so much of what is appealing to an audience is the dramatic or has to do with science fiction and Schmidt is simply human. There's no melodrama there's no device It's just about a human being.

In the past I've made movies that were pretty universally liked. You can't really hate them. You can discard them but you can't really hate them.

Sure 'Twilight' is really huge right now and everybody's freaking out over it but it will go away soon and I will be back to doing what I'm used to doing: weird little movies that nobody sees.

A lot of the struggle I had with movies is I really loved moments and tones and feelings in a scene and I loved creating those but I never really had great stories to string them together.

I really don't have favorites I'm just a fan of movies period.

I never really got nightmares from movies. In fact I recall my father saying when I was three years old that I would be scared but I never was.

Everyone related to me in my circle was from church: church friends church school church activities. All my friends weren't allowed to watch MTV or go to PG-13 movies or listen to the radio so I didn't really know anything different. That's how I was raised.

Movies have takes. But plays are like life - you don't really get takes.

I've been really enjoying writing articles and writing music and music for movies.

I don't really have a schedule of when I want to show my children my movies.

Movies are a fad. Audiences really want to see live actors on a stage.

I think with movies I am really connecting to the Joseph Campbell idea of the collective unconscious.

It's the movies that have really been running things in America ever since they were invented. They show you what to do how to do it when to do it how to feel about it and how to look how you feel about it.