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" As a general rule, I don't plan to travel with my Oscars, but we may have to make an exception. "
Paul Haggis
Make
Travel
Rule
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" We're trying to reinvent Bond. He's 28 - no Q, no gadgets. "
Paul Haggis
Gadgets
Bond
Trying
" For me, the most interesting people are ones who often work against their best interests. Bad choices. They go in directions where you go, 'No no no nooo!' You push away someone who is trying to love you, you hurt someone who's trying to get your trust, or you love someone you shouldn't. "
Paul Haggis
Choices
Work
Trust
" When I discovered European filmmakers, it affected me so deeply. It redefined what cinema could be. I mean, 'Blow-Up' ends with a dead body and mimes playing tennis. What? "
Paul Haggis
Mean
Me
Body
" Film is an emotional medium; it's not a logical medium. It's not an intellectual medium, so every decision you make as a filmmaker and an actor has to be emotional in some way, even in the rejection of logic. "
Paul Haggis
Logic
Decision
Rejection
" I don't think I'm against all wars, but you'd have to have a damn good reason to send your son or daughter to fight, or to go yourself. So often, we are lied to and manipulated by our governments for their own very cynical reasons. "
Paul Haggis
Son
Daughter
Fight
" I thought 'The King's Speech' was great. "
Paul Haggis
King
Great
Speech
" Even a modicum of celebrity is hard to deal with. You see it with actors and directors all the time. "
Paul Haggis
Deal
See
Hard
" I like it when an actor is secure enough to ask questions, and the director is secure enough not to be threatened by that. "
Paul Haggis
Questions
Enough
Director
" We all have these tendencies in us that could go this way or that. I think that's the real key in writing. To look at a character without judgment. "
Paul Haggis
Writing
Character
Go
" My one guiding rule for success in the film world would be, be careful of your friends. "
Paul Haggis
Success
Friends
World
" In 'The Next Three Days,' even though it was a prison breakout movie, I was asking myself, 'What would I do? How far would I go for the woman I loved? How far would I go, and what would I do when the person then told me that they were guilty? Could I still believe in them?' So it was very personal. "
Paul Haggis
Woman
Prison
Myself
" I like taking genres and subverting them. I did that with 'In the Valley of Elah.' I said, 'Okay, this is just a murder mystery. Relax.' And then, two thirds of the way through, I broke every convention of a murder mystery. "
Paul Haggis
Two
Way
Said
" I made a very good living as a bad writer. I wrote a lot of comedies, 'Diff'rent Strokes,' 'Facts of Life,' while all my friends were doing the good shows, like 'Cheers,' but I loved it because I got to be a working writer in Hollywood. "
Paul Haggis
Friends
Good
Life
" As artists, we have to be brave. If we aren't brave, we aren't artists. "
Paul Haggis
Brave
Be Brave
Artists
" 'Crash' was incredibly personal to me. So was 'In the Valley of Elah.' There were things in 'The Next Three Days' that were questions I was asking myself but couldn't answer, like how far would you go for love? Can you believe in somebody who can't even believe in themselves? But this is highly personal. "
Paul Haggis
Questions
Myself
Me
" I don't think it's the job of filmmakers to give anybody answers. I do think, though, that a good film makes you ask questions of yourself as you leave the theatre. "
Paul Haggis
Theatre
Job
Good
" The worst thing you can do to a filmmaker is to walk out of his film and go, 'That was a nice movie.' But if you can cause people to walk out and then argue about the film on the sidewalk... I think we're all seeking dissension, and we love to affect an audience. "
Paul Haggis
Love
You
Walk
" I just love actors, and I've always loved actors. I empathize with their job. Everyone thinks it's easy, and it ain't. To be that vulnerable and brave on camera is tough. The more they reveal themselves, the more we love them, but there's a lot of truth in what they're showing. "
Paul Haggis
Brave
Camera
Job
" A lot of films made me love the movies, everything from Hitchcock to Godard. But the ones that really grabbed me were Costa-Gavras's films like 'Z' and 'State of Siege.' "
Paul Haggis
Made
Love
Movies
" Every 10 years, I know less about love and relationships. The smarter I get, the less I know. "
Paul Haggis
Years
Know
Less
" Irish and Italian are my two favourite people. "
Paul Haggis
Favourite
Irish
Italian
" I moved to Hollywood when I was 22. I was married. I had a kid right away. And I had worked as a furniture mover amongst various other jobs, and I'd work eight, ten hours a day to support my family - and I'd come home and write for two hours a night or two and a half, or three hours a night. "
Paul Haggis
Support
Work
Night
" I wrote an episode for 'thirtysomething,' and a producer said, 'That's really good, but what is it about? What does it say about you? What questions are you asking yourself?' I had never thought about that. This comment changed who I was, because it made me look at my own soul, the dark corners in my soul, and accept that dark side. "
Paul Haggis
Good
Dark
Thought
" I'm a filmmaker, and I was most influenced by Hitchcock's films. How he could plant such deep enriched characters and then make us care both about the antagonist and protagonist was masterful. "
Paul Haggis
Care
Us
He
" I just asked myself, what piece of that man's soul did he just chew off and swallow to get next week's assignment? You know, just to live, just to work as an artist, or to feed the family? "
Paul Haggis
Man
Live
Soul
" Even in a comedy, you have to make people feel. You have to put your hand inside their soul and twist out their heart. "
Paul Haggis
Feel
You
Soul
" I'm a deeply broken person, and broken institutions fascinate me. "
Paul Haggis
Me
Institutions
Deeply
" 'Crash' came from personal experience. I saw things inside me from living in L.A. that made me uncomfortable. I saw horrible things in people and saw terrible things in myself. I saw a black director completely humiliated, but the three people around me just thought it was funny. 'No,' I said, 'that is selling your soul.' "
Paul Haggis
Myself
Experience
Funny
" Unless I'm really uneasy with what I'm writing, I lose interest very quickly. "
Paul Haggis
Interest
Lose
Really
" I have never pretended to be the best Scientologist, but I openly and vigorously defended the church whenever it was criticized, as I railed against the kind of intolerance that I believed was directed against it. I had my disagreements, but I dealt with them internally. "
Paul Haggis
Church
Best
Kind