It's always interesting to challenge yourself to say, 'Is this the best you can do?'
My impulse is to create an aesthetic that's about a humanistic approach to a world and trying to create compassion for all the characters.
I think movie sets can often be stressful, and people take themselves very seriously.
I don't even give my scripts to friends because I just feel it's, like, I don't need one more set of opinions.
I can be really annoying, but I also feel like I'm a nice person.
The purpose of making people feel uncomfortable is to play with their preconceptions.
What I find frustrating about scripted television is that it's rare that you are surprised by how you feel about the character, or how you feel about the show.
There's a victory in letting go of your expectations.
You can come to a political position from an emotional place.
'Girls' is a huge show, as far as buzz, and magazine covers, and getting a ton of copy, and awards. And yet I don't think the viewership is huge.
To me, I definitely stand in the corner of wanting to give voice to the bullied, and not the bully.
You feel a little weird, as a writer of scripted television for many years, to say you're a fan of reality TV. You feel like a traitor. But I am a total fan.
There's something very touching to me about someone almost communicating to themselves in some way - trying to come to some deeper understanding of yourself and having compassion for yourself.
I have had moments where I've had mental-health issues and I've felt like yoga and meditating and reading these Buddhist self-help books actually really help.
As an actor and a writer, the anxiety about doing TV is that you start to feel like you get married to one tone or one kind of idea and you feel like you want to be able to express a lot of different things.
I believe, in general, that even people that are self-pitying, you can feel for them.
I once volunteered to teach English as a second language, and I thought that I would have all these intense relationships with all these people from other worlds. Then you get there, and it's like, 'This is a pencil. This is a pencil' And afterward, ...
The things that drive me crazy are coming from this place of people suffering because of people polluting into rivers or whatever. It's not simply just about systems; it's an emotional reaction to seeing animals or people suffering.
As a director or writer, you have to be so controlling.
It's fun as a creator to make something that allows multiple interpretations.