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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. "

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" I've made up little mantras for myself, catchphrases from a screenwriting book that doesn't exist. One is 'Write the movie you'd pay to go see.' Another is 'Never let a character tell me something that the camera can show me.' "

Taylor Sheridan

You

Book

Camera

" 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 didn't know if I could make a good movie. But I knew I could make a respectful one. "

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

" Don't try and make a movie for someone else. You have to make it for you and trust that you're not that unique. And that'll matter to other people as well. "

" Sugarcoating doesn't do anybody any good. "

" 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. "

" I had a one-year-old son. How will my failure or success limit what he becomes? I was trying to write screenplays. It doesn't pay very well until you sell one. I was poor. "

" To me, 'Unforgiven' is one of the best films ever made. Aside from the fact it takes the genre and kicks it between its legs, it's this fascinating deconstruction of the myth of the West. "

" In 2011, I was in Hollywood peddling 'Sicario' to constant and resounding 'no's. Texas was suffering the worst drought on record. Wildfires spread across West Texas, burning some 4 million acres and 3,000 homes. While the urban centers in Texas were experiencing an economic boom, West Texas was collapsing under the weight of drought and fires. "

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

" For me, the greatest thing a movie can do is rivet you while you're watching but also give you something to chew on for days and weeks after you've seen it. "

" You know that saying, 'You broke it, you bought it'? With horses, if you don't make sure it's a good fit... they tend to break you. "

" I work very hard to line up stereotypes and then smash them with a hammer. "

" I wanted 'Hell or High Water' to feel like a road movie and an exciting, fun film - until it's not. "

" I broke a lot of conventions. Look, I spent a long time as an actor. I spent a lot of time playing pretty ordinary arcs. "

" 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. "

" I learned a tremendous amount about dialogue because I suffered as an actor. "

" I'm not the guy to ask to write a sequel. "

" 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. "

" I think that marriage of music and picture is so vital, especially in a film that's almost exclusively exteriors. "

" I don't write tracking shots in my screenplays or any camera directions, but I do try to give a sense of how the action is moving. "

" 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

" I love to play with the notion of who the protagonist is - who is the audience supposed to root for? I did it in 'Sicario' and feel it was the strength of the script - guiding the audience's allegiance toward the villain because they think he's the hero, until it's revealed that he's the villain. "

" Josh Brolin is fascinating to watch because he is just so effortless. It's like watching a really gifted athlete run, and I just didn't have that. "

Taylor Sheridan

Watching

Athlete

" 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

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

" I don't outline. I sit down to write, and I take the ride. If something starts to not feel right, I go back to the last place that felt like jazz to me. "

Taylor Sheridan

Ride

Jazz

" One of the major issues that's constantly batted around Hollywood and the media is my industry's responsibility toward the portrayal of violence. There's the irony of the films that glorify it and the individuals taking positions against it. It's a very confusing, confounding place. "

" 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. "