Quotes

I'm not really trying to make 'great art.'

I like a woman to take control but they're hard to find. For example, when I go out to a restaurant I know every girl in there wants to come say hi and be sexually aggressive, but they're all so gripped by shyness that they don't even make a move. In some cases the shyness is so severe they won't even look at me.

[re his character in Crystal Fairy & the Magical Cactus (2013)] Even the nicest people in the world know what it's like to be selfish, even if they don't act on it. Everyone has access to those impulses. He's both fixated and miserable. He's a person who is so uncomfortable with himself that he can't be in the present moment for even a second.

[re social life in Hollywood, and move to NYC] I'm not plugged into that world. It's a really good city to be a homebody and sit and watch movies with friends. It takes a lot of work to be plugged in to people. Every day you wake up it's a new challenge, like: 'What am I going to do with myself today?'...In New York, if you walk outside you are involved. Everyone feels that, and everyone is feeding off that. I saw New York in Ghostbusters (1984) when I was 4 years old and decided I would end up living there.

[re confusion with Jesse Eisenberg] I get it a lot. People will tell me they loved me in The Social Network (2010), and I will tell them I'm not Jesse. I was in a convenience store one time buying something, and the guy just ahead of me was paying for something and he looked at me and he goes, 'Jesse Eisenberg?' I went, 'No.' Then he goes, 'Michael Cera?' I was pretty impressed he got it on the second try.

One of the great things about being involved in this business is that you meet people who are so talented, whose stuff you admire, who you can potentially work with.