Melodrama is one of the most stunning art forms. These are stories where the emotions are big, and the situations are big, and the artists believe in the situation dramatically. There's no irony or distance.

It's difficult because Manhattan is so fantastic, and it's 9 miles away, and all these cool rich people live there and have great lives, and you live in a semi-attached row house in Queens.

The state of being in love is so inherently preposterous. It usually lends itself to romantic comedy. I think we've all been there.

Americans have always been excellent at making romantic comedies - but dramatically, we don't really try to do it.

There are very few movies in English about romantic obsession told with a seriousness of purpose.

The key to humor is often self-loathing or sarcasm. In a sense, that's how self-loathing is made palatable.