He met his wife Catherine O'Hara on the set of Beetlejuice (1988) after director Tim Burton encouraged him to ask Catherine out on a date. They married in 1992 and they have two sons.

When I met Tim Burton, it was like a breath of fresh air in terms of liberating me from dreary realism. He would push me towards German Expressionism and reference other movies. He was always a fan of old horror movies. But he would view them with a sense of humor. In that period when you try to wrap your head around his aesthetic you learn. But it was a fantastic experience that changed the way I approach movies from that movie on, as much as you just thought outside the constraints of realistic, replicating reality for movie design.