R. J. Cutler

Living in L.A. keeps me in my car a lot, and I'm constantly flipping back and forth between the following Sirius/XM Radio stations: NFL Radio, MLB Radio, POTUS, MSNBC, CNN, and Fox News.

If ever we deserved a candidate at this moment in our culture, that candidate is Donald Trump.

I work in the film business, where schmoozing is an art form, lunch hour lasts from 12:30 until 3, and every meeting takes an hour whether there's an hour's worth of business or not.

Taxicab Confessions' always cracks me up. And if you are in the mood for a good game show, I like 'Survivor' because it's well made.

Throughout the day, I frequently use my iPhone to check 'Deadline Hollywood' and my Twitter feed, as well as the 'Daily Beast,' the 'New York Times,' 'Metsblog,' and 'Thejetsblog.'

It's my approach as a filmmaker always to go in, not with a thesis or preconceived notion, but with curiosity and questions and inquiry. So in some way, I'm always surprised. I'm always finding paths of engagement.

The only thing documentary filmmakers have to work with, at least the way I make films, is trust. That's been true of everyone from James Carville and George Stephanopoulos to the kids in 'American High' to the soldiers in 'Military Diaries' to Anna Wintour to Dick Cheney.

I always find myself gravitating toward stories of transformation, and one of those periods is teenage life. When teenagers are figuring out who they are and have one foot in childhood and the other in adulthood - I think that's a really mythic moment to tell stories about.

With 'If I Stay,' I want you to feel that the whole story is being told from a larger, spiritual point of view. So the beginning is very theatrical.

No matter how much you've done before, you wonder if there will be a light at the end of this particular tunnel. It's the nature of the beast, and it's a part of what compels us. Every movie is a new lesson you learn making your way through it.

I don't think it's a coincidence that 'The War Room' and 'A Perfect Candidate' are films that have been consistently shown and available for rental for 20 years. These are films that are more about the moment in which they were filmed: they also have a great deal to say about larger issues about who we are as a country.

I record the following shows on a daily basis and watch them when I have the time/inclination: 'The Daily Show,' Rachel Maddow, 'Hardball,' 'The Colbert Report,' 'The O'Reilly Factor,' David Letterman.