I've always been really interested in how people's identities are shaped by where they come from and how they want to get away from where they come from.
For me to be able to punch above my weight creatively, to actually take a stand for what I was doing, I had to take on everything. I had to be the person who says, 'I wrote it. I directed it.'
Normally, I think the people you would use on your first film, it would be a real struggle to bring them with you onto your television show. I just brought every single person with and expanded my little indie film world.
All writing is propaganda for the self.
I love a kind of shambling outsider protagonist who always feels like they're 'other.'
I guess a show like 'Entourage' would be wish fulfillment, right? But 'Entourage' is wish fulfillment for men. It's that you can be kind of schlumpy-looking and have access to someone famous and find yourself at a pool party surrounded by girls in bikinis.
On Sunday morning, it's Brooklyn Bagels on Beverly Boulevard. We get them hot. Then we walk some of the famous Silver Lake steps or hike in the hills to the highest vantage point to see the reservoir.
I love TV, I love writing, but I love movements more.
My interest in community is what fuels my work as a writer, more than just wanting to write or just wanting to have a TV show.
I think I've always had that struggle my whole life, of feeling a little bit more gender-neutral, feeling more comfortable as a creative person when I'm dressed like a boy, when I'm dressed more masculine.
It's really easy to be funny. You get a lot of funny people in a room, the show is funny.
It's really easy to do sad; you just put on some sad music and write dramatically - everybody can do that.
I'm constantly confused about how to dress.
Being pretty... I'm just confused about it. I mean, I love getting my nails done, but I also like dressing like a boy. I think I feel most myself when I'm mixing femininity and masculinity. Like, fifty-fifty.
Watching 'Girls,' it was really angering for me at first, because I really had spent decades hiding unlikable, unattractive Jewish girls in likable, attractive, non-Jewish actors and characters.
Independent filmmakers already have their heads around people on their couches watching their movies.
We're a whole culture of people who have a really hard time seeing beyond themselves.
There's always been something about Jeffrey Tambor, not only as an actor but as a person, where his ability to embody a sort of very dignified feminine way of being just - this was just very clear to me.
I always wanted to do a family show.
My sister and I created a show called 'The Real Life Brady Bunch,' which was sort of a theatrical sensation that got us attention in L.A. and New York.
