The temperatures required for caramelization and browning almost always far exceed the boiling point of water. So the presence of water on the surface of a food, or on the bottom of a pan, is a signal that browning can't yet occur.
I think there are specific times where film noir is a natural concomitant of the mood. When there's insecurity, collapse of financial systems - that's where film noir always hits fertile ground.
The most interesting indie titles always tend to come out of nowhere for me. That's part of the fun for me.
I've always been interested in moments of disbelief... I don't know if they possess any magic, but they do have something.
Once I started to write, it was like all the lights came on. I was always making up stories in my head. I was a daydreamer. I didn't start as a child, but once I started, I couldn't stop. It was compulsive.
I think being tortured as a virtue is a kind of antiquated sense of what it is to be an artist. It comes out of that Symbolist idea, back to Rimbaud and all that disordering of the senses and all of that being some exalted state. When I've been that way, I've always been less exalted than I would have liked.
Write about your experiences! When I moved to L.A., I didn't have any friends, and the office janitor was the person who I saw the most. He would always come in at around 10:00 P.M., and I would still be at my desk, so I wrote a play about a first-year TV writer and the friendship that she developed with the janitor. Our stories matter.
I grew up wearing PUMA, and our national team is sponsored by PUMA, so those were always in the store. We couldn't afford Nike or Jordan, so PUMA was our brand. If you were wearing PUMA, that's dope.
I've always had this core belief in public service. Even before I became a citizen, I volunteered in the Army.
I've always seen places as being very deeply connected to the experience that people have in those places. I think that probably comes through very much in my books.
Brooklyn for twenty years, I've learned that there is always someone better than you at what you do.