Well, I think what we saw in Eternal Sunshine was it was one of the most romantic stories in cinema history. And a lot of people would say “Are you crazy? It’s so cynical and dark.” But the thing is, for me—and this is an individual thing—when you know that an artist is willing to go to these incredibly dark places, then you’re able to trust the product all the more and therefore, if they end up saying anything remotely uplifting about the human condition, it’s five-thousand times as uplifting because you feel like it’s the truth this time and not propaganda and not an attempt to just cheer people up.

It’s pretty obvious from watching his stuff that he’s pretty capable of thinking bleak things about our position in the world relative to it and each other. And so the fact that there was love in that movie, the fact that people loved each other… I walked out of Eternal Sunshine going, “That was incredible.”

We walk around in relationships going, “Well, I secretly have some pretty dark thoughts about my significant other. I’m bored to tears with her. I hate the way she slurps her cereal, etc., etc.” And we’re trained, very justifiably, to shove that stuff down because that’s our definition of romance. And you can see what a twisted, cynical, sad world we create when we do that without any relief ever.

I think that really good romantic comedies have always, in some way—even if you’re talking about When Harry Met Sally—in some way they go to the place that you were afraid to go to previously. And so there’s a romantic catharsis there, like, “I actually feel free to love again because maybe I’m not so dark and twisted. Maybe my thoughts about my significant other are just part of what makes us us.”