Andrew McCarthy

“It was a beautiful experience for her, the experience that she had that she confesses. It wasn't dirty and it wasn't horrible and wasn't shattering. It was a wonderful, liberating experience.”

“In starting to learn about film festivals and what were good ones - 'cause there are five billion of them - it was just a really good East Coast festival. And I thought this little movie was an East Coast film.”

“There's something in the act of setting out that renews me, that fills me with a feeling of possibility. On the road, I'm forced to rely on instinct and intuition, on the kindness of strangers, in ways that illuminate who I am, ways that shed light on my motivations, my fears.”

“I thought I understood the story very well, because I've lived with it for so long. But movies change and take on a life of their own once they start to be made, and you have to keep your eye on the real ball, not the ball that's in your head.”

“Travel does this: it creates space that allows thoughts and memories to intrude and assert themselves with impunity. Smells and sights, the quality of light, the honk of a horn -- can all act as touchstones when least expected.”

“It's embarrassing, isn't it? It took me 15 years to make an 18-minute movie.”

“The price of self-empowerment is what I call it. Somebody who thinks outside the box.”

“The idea that we cause harm by doing what we perceive to be the right thing, that's another theme that interests me. Because most people don't intend to cause harm, they cause harm by doing the right thing - in their mind.”

“But in my clutching, it began to slip away. I softened my grasp and the sense of fluidity returned, I rode it like a wave. ...This paradox provoked in me a sense of freedom and relief-relief that what I was always aware of on a faint, subconscious level was a strong and satisfying truth.”

“And I know when I was younger, and still, I always marvel at what I feel is different from what I'm told that I'm supposed to feel.”

“I was fascinated that everybody in the story thinks that they're in the right.”

“As is often the case when I travel, my vulnerability -- like not knowing what the hell I'm going to do upon arrival -- makes me more open to outside interactions than I might be when I'm at home and think I know best what needs to be done. On the road, serendipity is given space to enter my life.”

“So I wanted to explore all points of view of that, not just the girl's but his point of view as well. Only by directing it could I explore all the points of view.”

“Nobody thinks that they're evil or bad, they think that they're doing the right thing.”

“So something about that touched me, obviously, when I was young and it just stayed with me. I'm always amazed by that, because my experience seems to be so much different than what I'm told, so much of the time.”

“In doing everything, from coming up with the ideas and putting them on paper till doing the final edits, you are always thinking the next three steps, you're always thinking what next, what next, what next?”