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" I grew up with Woody Allen and early Spike Lee movies in which New York was such a specific character. The city has a certain vibe and beat which really informs your entire existence. "

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" Genre is a really great shorthand you can have with an audience. In the same way you can use music to create a connection with an audience, it brings so much of their knowledge of what genre really is to the table. You have a shortcut to connect with them. I really like that. "

Jonathan Levine

Great

Music

You

" To be a director, you have to think you're the best. Ever since I went to film school, I imagined that you have to think deep down that you want to be Martin Scorsese or you want to be P.T. Anderson. Like, am I as good as those guys? Absolutely not. I feel like I keep learning, and I feel like I keep getting better. "

" There's so often - in filmmaking, you're backed into something that already has these set parameters, whether it's a sequel or a book that people love. "

" I'm a writer and director. And the movie I've seen a million times is 'Coming Home,' directed by Hal Ashby and starring Jon Voight, Jane Fonda and Bruce Dern. "

" I have a cameo in every movie. In '50/50,' I'm in the back of the bus. "

" On '50/50,' even though it was 8 million dollars, it was all acting-intensive. "

" For me, the best high school movie is, like, 'Fast Times' and what Cameron Crowe is like. "

Jonathan Levine

Fast

School

" For me, I just value my friendships so much. I mean, I love my family, too, but my friends - I have a really special connection with my friends. "

" I think Giuliani started a trend that Bloomberg continued with rampant gentrification, and I think it's tough because why would any city choose not to do that? "

" After 'Mandy Lane,' I didn't really know what to do because I didn't know anyone who'd made a feature yet. "

" I like to branch out as much as I can, but I feel like the movies that are closest to my heart are 'The Wackness' and '50/50' - the ones that are dramedies that have that human element to them. "

Jonathan Levine

I Can

Movies

" I feel like comedy is where I'm most at ease, but I also have an allergy to silly jokes. "

Jonathan Levine

Silly

Jokes

" For me, it's always more interesting to look at things when you don't really have a horse in the race, so to speak. "

Jonathan Levine

Look

Speak

" As I continue to evolve as a filmmaker, I'm going to continue to do different stuff. "

" For whatever reason, the films I gravitate towards do have these strange sort of tonal balances to them... I kind of realized on '50/ 50' why I liked these blending of tones, because I think it's kind of what life is like: funny one minute, sad the next, scary the next. "

" Any time I hear certain songs I put in a movie, I have to not listen to them anymore because I associate them with that movie. They take on that association rather than the association I had when I first heard them. So it's kinda bittersweet to put a song in a movie, honestly. "

" I've had a couple of family members deal with cancer, and I remember that moment where they're going into surgery, and you just have no idea what's going to happen, and it's really scary. "

" I've been a huge fan of Hal Ashby forever. And I think that the distinctive thing about 'Coming Home' is the love story, and how - kind of emotionally real it is, and how these two characters allow each other to see their - kind of vulnerabilities. And it's great because it's a love story that's not really that cheesy, either. "

" I don't like being pigeonholed at all. It stemmed from after 'Mandy Lane': I was being offered all these horror movies. I love horror movies, but when I dreamed of being a director, it was always doing all sorts of things. "

" I think I'm always conscious of not letting things fit into a specific box. Being a filmmaker and trying to chart a career, you never want anyone to be able to pigeonhole you into one specific thing. "

" I watched 'Return Of The Living Dead.' That one's cool, man. I like that one. "

" As a director, your expectation and reality don't always match up, and I think that that's... I think it's a little jarring. "

Jonathan Levine

Reality

Director

" I learned some big lessons on my first film, a horror film which was never released in the U.S., even though we sold it to Harvey Weinstein for a lot of money. "

" I think that's the great thing about zombies, is, you know, going back to even 'Night of the Living Dead,' they've always been a tool for kind of holding up a mirror to us and showing us something about ourselves that we might not otherwise know. "

" I definitely think New York is a very, very vibrant, wonderful city, but I certainly, of course, can't help but miss a lot of the stuff that's no longer there. "

" My first real television-watching experience was when I watched 'L.A. Law,' like, at 10 o'clock Thursday nights with my parents. They would let me stay up late. "

" I was actually shooting 'Warm Bodies' on the day that '50/50' came out, which I don't recommend to other filmmakers because I was sort of a wreck. Actually, it was good for me, because I had work to do, so I couldn't obsess all day and be checking how '50/50' was doing! "

" I really like it when movies take a song and use it to counterpoint a scene. "

Jonathan Levine

Scene

Movies

" I really don't like when you see improv scenes go on too long. It really bothers me, even if the jokes are good. "

" Do I wish I was Martin Scorsese? Yeah. But am I really proud of the movies I've made and really happy that I get to keep making them? Yes. "