Listen: our culture is saturated with irony whether we know it or not.

There's a moment of recognition. It's that white-light kind of stuff that just 'works.' I love that. And you know it when it happens, whether it's a movie, music, a building, a book.

There are so many moments and works that influence us in what we do. Movies, music, TV and, most importantly, the profound everydayness of our lives.

Do you know why language manifests itself the way it does in my work? It's because I understand short attention spans.

I believe that who we are, and consequently the work that we make, whether we're visual artists or writers or journalists or filmmakers, is a projection of where we were born, what's been withheld or lavished upon us, our color, our sex, our class. And everything we do in life to some degree is a reflection of that context.

If most American cities are about the consumption of culture, Los Angeles and New York are about the production of culture - not only national culture but global culture.