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" If I hadn't met Scorsese, I would never have become a filmmaker. He has taught me everything I know about editing and has given me the best job in the world. "

Thelma Schoonmaker

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" In 'Casino,' there was this scene where Bob De Niro tape-records Sharon Stone's phone call. Then he asks her about where she's going, and he catches her in a lie. It was a great scene, especially for Bob's work, but we found that, in light of the whole film, it wasn't needed. "

Thelma Schoonmaker

" I don't think you can be a great director without knowing a lot about editing. "

Thelma Schoonmaker

" I remember, at the Oscars in 1991, 'Dances with Wolves' won that year, and we were nominated for 'Goodfellas.' One of my peers said to me, 'Why'd you make that bad jump cut?' I said, 'Which one? We had about 20 in the film!' He was really upset about it. "

Thelma Schoonmaker

" In the very beginning, women were editors because they were the people in the lab rolling the film before there was editing. Then when people like D. W. Griffith began editing, they needed the women from the lab to come and splice the film together. Cecil B. DeMille's editor was a woman. Then, when it became a more lucrative job, men moved into it. "

Thelma Schoonmaker

" From the moment I met Martin Scorsese in 1962, he educated me about the films that had taught him so much about filmmaking. He had been deeply affected, even as a child, by great films that stretched his mind and struck into his heart, and he was eager to share them with friends and people who worked with him or with actors who were in his films. "

Thelma Schoonmaker

" I love being around great artists, and I've been around a few of them. "

Thelma Schoonmaker

" One of our big tools is screening. We screen usually 12 times, which is much more than most filmmakers do, and we recut in between each one, because we really need to feel how the audience is reacting to the movie. "

Thelma Schoonmaker

" The studio was very nervous about 'Raging Bull.' "

Thelma Schoonmaker

" When you're in a movie with an audience, you can feel where a film is dragging. People start to move. They fidget. You need that perspective. To give it a cold eye. "

Thelma Schoonmaker

" I started in documentaries, and that was a great help to me with improvisation, because with documentaries, you're handed a big lump of footage, and you have to shape it and make it into a story - which I love doing. "

Thelma Schoonmaker

" Even though my parents are American, I spent my whole childhood and adolescence abroad. "

Thelma Schoonmaker

" I know a lot of editors who are very bitter about the directors they work with. They feel they could have done a better job, and I say to them, 'Oh really? Why don't you go try - it's not easy.' "

Thelma Schoonmaker

" There's a great deal of mystery in film editing, and that's because you're not supposed to see a lot of it. You're supposed to feel that a film has pace and rhythm and drama, but you're not necessarily supposed to be worried about how that was accomplished. "

Thelma Schoonmaker

" In 'Silence,' there was no improvisation at all; really, you're dealing with a script and a 17th century way of speaking. "

Thelma Schoonmaker

" In certain fight scenes in 'Raging Bull' - for example, the shorter ones - I literally just took the head and tail of the shot and put it together, and it all worked beautifully. "

Thelma Schoonmaker

" I never thought I would get married: I'm such a workaholic. "

Thelma Schoonmaker

" Some young filmmakers, unfortunately, don't have the ability to resist attempts to maybe cut their films down unfairly. "

Thelma Schoonmaker

" It's wonderful to work on footage by someone who understands how to get it to cut right, which a lot of directors don't. "

Thelma Schoonmaker

" 'Raging Bull' was just a dream to work on, but it took a lot of work to get all those fights to work right and incorporate them properly into the story. "

Thelma Schoonmaker

" With digital editing, I now can make many, many versions of a scene. "

Thelma Schoonmaker

" Having been raised overseas, I wanted to become a diplomat. But the State Department thought I was too 'liberal' to be happy with that job. "

Thelma Schoonmaker

" If forced to choose my favourite film, I would have to say 'Raging Bull' because it was the first feature film I worked on, and it was like having pure gold in my hands. But my husband's film 'The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp' is equally a favourite because of its enormous emotional power. "

Thelma Schoonmaker

" I do think there's not enough film history being taught and appreciated. Maybe it's being taught, but I've heard from professors that young kids don't want to look at black-and-white movies. And that's 85 years of film history, with masterpiece after masterpiece. "

Thelma Schoonmaker

Black-And-White

" I can access footage much quicker, yes. But in terms of living with a film and knowing what's right, digital doesn't do that for you. "

Thelma Schoonmaker

" Even in 'The Red Shoes,' a film that nobody ever has complaints about, there are enormous continuity bumps, and it doesn't matter. You know why? Because you're being carried along by the power of the film. "

Thelma Schoonmaker

" I hope films will be somehow preserved and seen by as many people as possible in the future. There are endless treasures for audiences to discover, if only we can keep them from disappearing. "

Thelma Schoonmaker

" Whenever I can, I like to go to Cotswolds, in England, where my husband had a cottage. I spend my time reading his diaries, which I would like to publish. "

Thelma Schoonmaker

" To receive footage that has been shot with editing in mind, it is a blessing. "

Thelma Schoonmaker

" Everybody would like us to make 'Goodfellas' over and over and over again. "

Thelma Schoonmaker

" I just happened to see an ad saying 'Willing to train an assistant editor,' and I learned enough from that to go to NYU for just one summer course. That's all that I could afford. "

Thelma Schoonmaker