Quotes from Jeff Baena

Zombies sort of typify this ambiguity, that they're not dead and not alive.

If it feels like you're aiming for something too familiar, and you're not having a primary new experience, then what's the point of making that movie? It's been done before, so try to find something new out of it.

You can't avoid being an egotistical person and ultimately somewhat narcissistic. You can try to curb it by recognizing that behavior. But at the same time, your repetitive behavior has its own psychology, and it's impossible to get out of that.

Comedy is all about rhythm and context, and there's all types of comedies, and it's about finding that right brand, that consistency in tone.

I hate when people eat food and talk with their mouth full. I always cover my mouth when I eat, but I've had it where there's little bologna bits flying on your food.

'Motherwort.' 'Great Leopard's Bane.' These are awesome band names.

When you have new people coming in and you sort of want to show them the ropes, it's always easier to have people that know the process and are able to sort of just do their thing, and then everyone can kind of follow their lead.

For us, when we think about the Middle Ages, it's sort of this rarefied, distant time that we have no connection to, especially if you grew up in America.

It's life, so you're a constant evolution of tragedies and achievements and ups and downs. You can probably get a little bit more immune to things, but whatever is the most amount of pain you feel at any given moment feels like the most amount of pain you'll ever feel.

People were always like, 'Oh my God, you're going to be working with your girlfriend? Are you freaking out? Is that going to, like, destroy your relationship?' I think it emboldened the relationship.

After doing 'Life After Beth,' which I think had one line that wasn't scripted, everything was scripted so that it sounds natural, and I went to such great lengths to create dialogue and to come across the way that people wouldn't sound like they were on the nose.

I think one of the bigger issues with modern-day people is that we don't give enough credit to people from history as being real. We almost treat them as these rarified beings that didn't exist the way that we do with emotions and urges and drives.

If something's really selfless, then there's really no value in it for you... there's only value in it for the world.

One of the interesting things about the 'Decameron' itself was it was written in the Florentine dialect as opposed to the Latin vernacular - and that was mainly to have it be a piece of literature for the people as supposed to some kind of highfalutin' canon.

I don't try to make actors play crazy characters. I like where there's a certain element of who they are and truth to their performances.

Not to be negative, but I think the biggest lesson is don't trust anyone.

I've always maintained that people that are funny and smart can do anything in film.