John Cusack: Yes, I'm Mr. Malkovich's attorney.

JM: Oh, I don't know that a film has ever transformed me. If it did, I wouldn't be able to feel that transformation until many years later.

JC: The thing that I took away from the film was the culture of celebrity, and the difference between artistic integrity and fame. People who are artists want the wrong thing, sometimes, and that was one of Craig's character flaws. He is a very good puppeteer but he wanted more recognition than perhaps a puppeteer is worth. One of my favorite lines in the film is when Maxine calls up and asks Craig if Malkovich is appealing. Craig responds, "Of course, he's a celebrity." That's something to ruminate on.

THC: Another one of the main themes of this movie is getting to be somebody else other than yourself. Who would you want to be?

JC: The greatest thing about Catherine Keener in this film is that she makes Maxine so cruel and so likeable at the same time. Every time she does something horrible, she gives you the sinking suspicion that that is going to be the last time she'll be horrible, and now she's going to start being nice. I always thought when I was younger that I would want to be the guy who could make a girl like Maxine stop being such a bitch.

JM: Being anybody else would be fine for me.

THC: Why is this movie about Being John Malkovich, rather than somebody else?

Charlie Kaufman, the screenwriter: I don't know. At the time when I wrote this film it was the only choice, and it never changed.