Nothing Lasts Forever features an incredible cast. Did you write it with the actual cast in mind, or was that something that occurred after the script was finished?
Sort of half-and-half. I knew that I wanted to use my friends, Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd, and even [John] Belushi — but he died before the film was made. And then, as I kept writing along, I kept thinking of all the people I loved and wanted to work with like Imogene Coca and Sam Jaffe…and somehow I was able to get a lot of really neat people. I auditioned a lot of guys for that [the role of Adam played by Zach Galligan], including I think Matthew Broderick and John Cusack, but Zach Galligan wasn’t in Gremlins yet…but I liked him because he was unknown and he had a certain quality that I think was good for that character.

Adam’s dilemma in the film — someone who wants to be an artist, but doesn’t know what kind — is common among twenty-somethings. Was this a dilemma you faced as a young adult?
Oh god yes, I think I’m still facing it. But, yeah sure, you’re moving around and you don’t know what to do. You sit in cafes drinking espresso and writing in your notebook, and you so desperately want to be an artist and you try things, and you don’t know what kind of an artist, and it just gnaws at you from the age of 16 to the twenties or something. So yes, I did want to capture that.