Look when I started out mainstream culture was Sinatra Perry Como Andy Williams Sound of Music. There was no fitting into it then and of course there's no fitting into it now.

I think music in itself is healing. It's an explosive expression of humanity. It's something we are all touched by. No matter what culture we're from everyone loves music.

The trick of making movies in this culture is how to not give up everything that makes them worthwhile in order to get them made - and that's a tricky balance.

I often begin movies with music in my head it's a very important dimension to me. Not just the music itself but how to use music in film: when and how and subtlety. I don't like to be too sweet in my stories and I like the abrasive clang the contrasting of sounds and cultures.

Family entertainment is really very necessary in our culture. Look how profitable they are. It's almost not discretionary. You need to take your family to the movies.

American movies are often very good at mining those great underlying myths that make films robustly travel across class age gender culture.

I think our culture has gotten so skewed. People assume that because you're an actor you want to write a book to exploit your celebrity but my celebrity is only a byproduct of me making movies. I have no intention of being a celebrity.

Once you make a movie like 'Superbad ' when it's popular and you're the lead you get offered all kinds of things and there's a temptation to make bad movies either for the money or to maintain your relevance in pop culture.

Movies for adults sucked in the 1980s and music for adults sucked even worse whether we're talking about Kathleen Turner flicks or Sting albums the decade's non-teen culture has no staying power at all.

Some people think literature is high culture and that it should only have a small readership. I don't think so... I have to compete with popular culture including TV magazines movies and video games.