You have to be involved and relate to the characters in order to make a film that is true emotionally.
— Spike Jonze
Doing a documentary is about discovering, being open, learning, and following curiosity.
I like hiring people based on a feeling - this person gets it - rather than what they've done in the past.
I like naps. I don't drink coffee.
Music is thousands and thousands of years old and I don't think that basic, primitive connection to the language of music ever changes.
It's fun when you start a movie, because it's kind of like you get to go Christmas shopping... you get to make your wish list and you start thinking about what each character needs.
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 just want to make whatever is exciting.
Felt is not the easiest thing to animate. It's very flimsy.
I feel like you only have so much time to make stuff. I'm definitely aware of that. I'm also excited about it.
I don't understand the whole testing-numbers thing. It is not how I want to make movies.
Emotions are messy and hard to figure out.
As a parent, your perspective of childhood is through the eyes of this person that you care so much about and you just want the world to be great for them. You want their life to be easy and happy.
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.
I think at the beginning of a project, you decide if you're in love with the idea and what it's about, or what you think it's about at that time at least. Then you commit to it, and once you've commit to it no matter what, no matter how many self doubts you have, you're in it. The ship's sailed, you can't turn around.
I think, as you're growing up, your emotions are just as deep as they are when you're an adult. You're ability to feel lonely, longing, confused or angry are just as deep. We don't feel things more as we get older.
I like the idea of the documentary as a portrait. There's not a chronological beginning, middle, and end structure. You build something in the editing room that's shaped by getting to know the person and digging deeper, unpeeling the layers of them as you get to know them.
If you compromise what you're trying to do just a little bit, you'll end up compromising a little more the next day or the next week, and when you lift your head you're suddenly really far away from where you're trying to go.
You make a movie that is about what you want it to be about and let people have their reaction to it.
The invention of the iPod changes how you use music. Suddenly you have music everywhere.
I think because I'm not a parent, my most immediate connection to childhood is my memory of my own childhood.
I'm not one to intellectualize why I did something.
If I can make one generalised statement, and generalised statements are never entirely true, nobody wants to be talked down to, kids included.
If you focus your energy on the camera, it takes away from the time you have to focus on the performances.
