Jonathan Demme is my favorite director by far. His films to me have these rough edges, that he so perfectly creates. Things are just slightly off in certain moments, but they are perfectly modulated and he has meant to put them there. This one doesn't just hit me emotionally, in terms of latching onto the guy who just misses a break...because he's essentially a loser, but a sweetheart. But It's the first twenty minutes. All that's going on is two guys talking in a fucking car - and that's it! This to me is heaven. Then the film branches off with one of them and we watch his life unfold. It's so fucking amazing the way the movie sets you up to accept whatever happens. It's like you've just been sucker-punched. And it is so well written and so well performed. A lot of my first film, Hard Eight, is patterned after Melvin and Howard's kind of structure - I just didn't do it as well."

Paul Thomas Anderson sobre Melvin and Howard (Jonathan Demme) (1980)