Kevin Smith's relationship with Joey Lauren Adams changed him for the better.
The 54-year-old director met the actress, now 56, while making 'Mallrats' in 1995 and though their romance was short-lived as they had split by July 1997, he admitted his "muse" - who was the lead in his 1997 film 'Chasing Amy' - had a transformative effect on him.
Speaking in new documentary 'Chasing Chasing Amy', Kevin said of Joey: "She was my muse.
"I became the person that I became for the rest of my life because of that relationship. I never went back to being the other guy.
And Kevin doesn't think his marriage to Jennifer Schwalbach Smith - who he married in 1999 after just over a year of dating - would have lasted so long without his experiences from his relationship with Joey.
He added: "There's no way I would be in a marriage that has lasted 20 years if I didn't meet Joey and she didn't shape me."
The '4:30 Movie' writer-and-director recently claimed the key to his marriage to Jennifer - with whom he has one child, 25-year-old actress Harley Quinn Smith - lasting so long was that there are "no rules".
He told People magazine: "My first instinct is, well, there've been no rules, and that's probably why it's worked so well for 25 years.
"I can't speak for her, but I just like seeing her. I just like being around her. She's my human."
Kevin - who met Jennifer when she was a journalist interviewing him about his 'Clerks' comic book - praised his 53-year-old wife for her support over the years.
He said: "I spend a lot of time on the road and doing gigs elsewhere and whatnot, and over the 25 years she's travelled with me a bunch and then lately she stays home to watch the dogs and stuff like that.
"She's been there shotgun through 25 years of this, and she's always been gracious about taking a back seat to it.
"When you're married to an artist — an artist who lives with his or her head up their ass thinking about, 'Oh my God, the whole world has to know what I think and feel' — I would imagine that must be irritating to live with. But she's lived with it for a quarter century."
