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" I think 'In The Heat Of The Night' was one of the most influential films on me. Looking back now, I can see how influential it was on my screenwriting because here you have what looks to be a crime procedural, and it's actually a study in race and loneliness, and a perception of an era. "

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" I'm a big believer in,'If anyone can understand my politics, I've failed.' If you can get a sense of which side of the fence I'm on, then I'm not doing a service. I'm preaching, and that's not my job. "

Taylor Sheridan

You

Side

Service

" I mean... directing is a holy, unpleasant experience, to be perfectly honest. "

" You set something in modern-day Texas, which is so identifiable as the Old West, and everyone's wearing guns, so it looks like it's going to be, by default, partially considered a western. "

" If you're going to make a sequel to 'Sicario', you have to - you know, you've got to go beat a brand new path. "

" Every writer has written a spec. It's the first thing you write, and it basically stands as a means of, 'Here's an example of how I tell stories.' It's almost like a business card. "

Taylor Sheridan

First

You

" My job is not to give you all the answers. My job is to ask the questions. "

" I think my mission, if I could call it that, as a storyteller is to try and find ways to show how similar we are and not how different we are. "

" As a filmmaker, you have to stand in front of what you did and make choices that you could do with a clear conscience. "

" I was going to be the head wrangler at a ranch in Wyoming, and the reason I didn't take the job is because I couldn't have my family there - the family had to stay in town. I just wasn't willing to do that. "

" Whether we can call 'Hell or High Water' this rogue buddy bank-heist movie, it's also a meditation on assimilation and failure and what happens when someone loses their purpose. "

" In the late '90s, I spent a lot of time on reservations, and there was a level of poverty and injustice that I had not witnessed before. I was shocked by it. This is federally controlled land, and there was an insidious mix of apathy and exploitation. "

" I believe in the Constitution - and I believe in common sense. "

" I've been very fortunate with my three spec scripts - which is sort of my thematic trilogy of the American Frontier. With 'Sicario', 'Hell or High Water' and then 'Wind River' - which is the third - there were no rewrites. It was the first draft for all three. "

" Think about 'GoodFellas': It could be a textbook on how not to write a screenplay. It leans on voice-over at the beginning, then abandons it for a while, then the character just talks right into the camera at the end. That structure is so unusual that you don't have any sense of what's going to happen next. "

" Where having been an actor was extremely helpful to me was in casting. That's where I think a director who has acted can really shine, and casting is the most important thing you do. "

Taylor Sheridan

Think

Important

" Most of us don't confront pure anything. What our life does involve is a whole lot of 60/40 and 70/30. "

" Growing up, my mother was a very strong woman who was not very big, about 5'1'', but boy, you grabbed a tiger by the tail if you messed with her. I know grown men that messed with her, and through her wit and intelligence and her no-quit, she never lost a fight. That's very influential on me when I'm telling stories. I love exploring that. "

" I'm a storyteller, and I was an actor, so I have a fairly thin grip on reality to begin with. "

" I was surprised by how much I liked 'Hacksaw Ridge' and its depth. "

" You've been entrusted with a lot of money and a lot of careers, and a lot of people put their faith in me, and every director goes through that every time. "

Taylor Sheridan

People

Faith

" I sent 'Hell or High Water' to Peter Berg, asking if he'd like to be involved. "

Taylor Sheridan

Water

High

" 'Kramer vs. Kramer' is one of my favorite films, where you have a story that really juxtaposes a lot of ideas that we have about family and about parenting. "

" Honest communication is a rare thing. "

" Some of the most fascinating scenes in 'Unforgiven,' for me, is that scene with Gene Hackman where he's talking about the Duke of Death that Richard Harris played, and he's basically demolishing this myth of this man very unwesternly - not what you expect in a western. "

" I had three attorneys dedicated solely to find the statistic of the number of missing Native American women on reservations. Any reservation, not just 'Wind River.' They don't exist. The federal government, which is responsible for the reservations, don't keep those stats. "

" To get a film in Cannes is a real honor. To have it play and not get booed is a real relief. "

" We can't assign beliefs to people who don't have a voice to express them. And we can't assume what someone thinks. "

" I spent most of my time as an actor in television, so directors in television - it's such a machine that's already in place that I don't think you notice the direction as much on the set. "

" Bad people sometimes do good things, and good people do really bad things or do something the audience disagrees with. "

" People in Texas wear cowboy hats; they're good at keeping the sun off your neck and face. "