One of my life philosophies is that you have a choice to make when you're doing something creative. You can be cheesy... or you can be lame..

When you dont inherit an identity you have to define it on your own..

I always remembered that when I saw people get married they got on a rocketship and went to Planet Happiness, Population: Them..

It's really hard to find just a simple character-driven drama, outside of a genre, that was available to direct, except for on TV..

I think that Spider-Man is a part of our culture. He's a perennial character. He's something that's constantly reexamined and there are so many versi….

Nerds are running the world. Andrew Garfield made a movie [called “The Social Network”] about it. Nerds are no longer pariahs and knowing how to writ….

We're creating a different universe with different rules and a different tone and different villains. We were very careful to honor the iconography o….

When you have to react to a lizard that's a tennis ball, it's a really, really difficult, tricky piece of craft..

Earnestness can ferment into sentimentality..

I think it's really important, when you're redefining a character [ Spider-Man], for the audience to experience things that they haven't experienced,….

For me, there were a few things in the Spider-Man comics that I thought were really interesting. There's this story about Peter's parents and where h….

I think one of the things about Peter Parker that is so great, and what has made him and Spider-Man last so long is he is a kid that we all feel conn….

I think that if you make something that's relatable then people will attach themselves to it. You can express it in a lot of different ways but I fee….

Something you can do in a comic that you can't do in a film is that you can have thought bubbles..

Geeks are running the world, anyone who's seen The Social Network knows the dynamic has shifted, but what I think is iconic and timeless about Peter ….

Sundance is a really special place. They're very protective of movies, especially lower-budget movies..

There's a punk rock quality to Peter Parker, that I identified with when I read the comics [Spider-Man], and that I really liked. He has this chip on….

I think that the dramas that you find in TV are actually a lot more interesting, typically, than what you find in cinema..

Audiences can tell when you're being fake and they will eat you alive. But if you're doing something authentic they will connect to it and that can l….

Romance: That's one of the things that makes Spider-Man really unique, in terms of the comic books. There is a tender, romantic quality to it. And ce….

I was a Marvel guy. I started reading comics when I was a kid..