Amy Heckerling

“Body image - what we're supposed to look like - is made so unattainable that all girls are put in this position of feeling inferior. That's a horrible thing.”

“You could go out with a camcorder tomorrow and make a movie with virtually no money, but promoting a tiny low-budget movie costs $20 million. And the money they spend on the big movies is astronomical.”

“I wanted to do something about a really optimistic character: a character who was so optimistic, no one could burst her bubble.”

“I attended Art & Design High School, and at one point, you had to write about what you wanted to be when you grew up. I wrote that I wanted to be a writer for 'Mad' magazine.”

“I don't think people know 'Nosfuratu.'”

“Some women are great, and you wouldn't have been able to get to where you are without them, and others are doing what they can to undermine you.”

“To tell you the truth, in the old Jewish shtetls, if your husband died, sometimes they'd have you marry the brother, and my grandparents were actually stepbrother and stepsister.”

“A lot of my movies were completely destroyed by the censors, who can be pretty arbitrary. They're not completely fair with how they treat one person vs. another.”

“The Bronx always seemed very dreary to me.”

“Babies don't need fathers, but mothers do. Someone who is taking care of a baby needs to be taken care of.”

“NYU was my comfort zone.”

“There was one vampire movie that Gerard Butler was in, 'Dracula 2000,' and they touched on something interesting, but it only worked in the context of that particular movie, which was that the original vampire was Judas.”

“Over-the-knee socks remind me of the 1920s, silent films, and the stars of the era who wore the rolled-down stockings. They sort of referenced that in 'Cabaret,' when Liza Minnelli was singing 'Mein Herr,' and I love the way she looks in that scene.”

“There's a whole vampire community online - those are some crazy people.”

“Any time I wind up in the lane where you can't quickly turn off of it and it's turning into the freeway, I just start screaming until I'm off of it.”

“I've always hated the way Hollywood has portrayed accountants. They're always little nerd balls, wimpy, afraid of everything. Growing up with accountants, I don't see them that way.”

“For me, New York is home because that's where I'm from.”

“I'm just not happy with Hollywood.”

“With electronics, they just get smaller and smaller.”

“When new things come along, some people always want the newest of the new - 'This is what I've been waiting for!' - and some people don't want or need the change - 'I like my old one.'”