But the two of them together, broke my heart. Olympia and Peter, those scenes... When they`re kissing in their 20s and then kissing in their 70s, that`s what it is. And they had never met five minutes before they shot those scenes.

In the original draft I was 27 and Peter was 55 in the script. That`s not the same as a guy in his 40s and a dad in the end of his 70s. It`s a different point in both our lives.

She kind of reminds one of Helen. There`s something very similar about Elizabeth Perkins.

Having a baby dragged me, kicking and screaming, from the world of self-absorption.

I remember my wife and I used to get on plane and see everybody else with their babies. They`d be putting strollers and car seats up above, and we`d think: Oh, please Lord, don`t make us go through that.

And in that time, I lost my dad and had kids of my own. It was like, OK, I get it now. I know what fatherhood is all about. And you look at your parents differently.

They`re not the sharpest people - babies. So, you must be everything to them.

But I really felt that, something about the lights going down, and the sense of community. I saw this movie at one festival, and there were 1700 people.

But you get past that and realize you have to let go of what you think you want. There`ll be plenty of time for that later. Right now, go and be with that baby. Just play with this beautiful little boy.

Every time I see Peter Falk in the movie I think that would be great. We`d be fun together.

I`d never directed before and this movie`s too important to me to put in the hands of some guy who has never directed. Even if it`s me.

It`s not like some movies where you`re following a bunch of different stories you can cut around. There was nowhere to cut to. It`s these guys. We`re not cutting back to anybody else.

Nothing would make me happier if Peter Falk would finally win his Oscar for this. Not just as the writer but as a fan and a friend. It would be so great.

The biggest thing I remember is that there was just no transition. You hit the ground diapering.

This is not the most right I`ve ever been.

We had the boy`s name picked out, but we didn`t have a girl`s. When he turned out to be a boy, we were so relieved. Literally, in the middle of contracting and pushing, and with my wife being drugged - out and half - lucid, we were still coming up with names.

I`d distract myself until finally it was a combination of things. The show was over and I had time on my hands. I had taken time and played and just relaxed.

Field of Dreams is the only movie - and I saw it in the theater - on an afternoon when I was on location somewhere, and there were like 12 people in the theater. I was just so devastated; I couldn`t get out of my seat. And I sat and watched it a second time.

Upstate New York in the middle of October. You can`t get more beautiful than that.

He was born early. But he was born within a safe range of premature.

And after you`ve done the acting, there`s a lot of places you can put your input - in the editing, in the production of it, in the rewriting of it and so on.

But at the same time that the experience is pulling you apart, it`s also bonding you. You have this joint venture! You both made this baby. And that`s the thing I still can`t get over.

In fact, I had the idea because of Peter Falk. I saw my dad watching a Peter Falk movie and something clicked in my head. I gotta go make a movie for Peter Falk and me.

Not only do I sing to him, I sing entire conversations. You become Jerry Lewis.

We made this movie for $17, and nobody got anything. So it never dawned on me that we would get real people.

It was funny to write for Peter Falk.

We have such a long, familiar history with Peter Falk. The minute his mug is on that screen people smile.

There`s something that happens in that delivery room, when a woman becomes ten times more a woman, and a guy becomes six times less a man. You feel really dopey and useless and like a spectator. I did, anyway.

Guys need a little help in knowing how to care for a kid. It`s not that I think: Gee, parenting is beneath me. It`s just that I wouldn`t think of it.