Music deals with time and timing. It's so magical, but when you get into it, every little sound and every little space between the sounds, it's critical, so critical. And if it's not there, it not only feels wrong, but it ruins things.

Stories hold conflict and contrast, highs and lows, life and death, and the human struggle and all kinds of things.

Building a set is like building a place, but it's a temporary place, because sets usually get torn down. Kind of unfortunate.

As a kid, I was always building things. My father had a shop in the house, and we built things - we were kind of a project family. I started out as a painter, and then painting led to cinema, and in cinema, you get to build so many things, or help build them.

I'm lucky that I do something I love, and I am proud, as I think it's a positive message to give to young women: if you want to have a career and be married with children, then you can. It's full-on, but it's doable.

Background scores allow me an absolute flight of the imagination, and I travel in my mind's eye. I do not like the scores to have vocal notes, because they act as a limitation to these flights of fancy.

I love the idea of using film language similarly to how musicians use music - combining images and sounds in a way that they create an emotional effect.

My understanding of this life is that you tour and play for years and years, have some longevity and a steady career. That may sound boring, but I always thought that was less depressing than being a one-hit wonder.