'Batman' was scary.

When you don't inherit an identity you have to define it on your own.

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

I just like that dynamic in relationships in movies where they’re kind of lovers as rivals, you know?

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

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 versions of him in the comics that it was something that I thought that we could do cinematically. He belongs on the big screen.

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 Parker is that he’s an outsider, on the outside looking in, and that was something I thought was very important to protect.

There’s a bigger universe at hand.

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 connected to, he’s not an alien, he’s not a millionaire, he’s just this kid that has trouble asking girls out.