Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App

" The producers want us to sell, sell, sell. That's my little joke. That's what we do by day; by night, we're artists. "

Related Quotes:

" I think that to make something alive, instead of on a page, is an honorable task. And it turns me on. "

" A great thing is happening on cable TV. You see characters change in stories over years, like in Tolstoy. That's a whole, thrilling new form that I really enjoy. They are Tolstoy-an in their endless character development and narrative changes... a show like 'Breaking Bad' is astonishing. "

" Any good movie is filled with secrets. "

" The thing is, as a film director, you're essentially alone: You have to tell a story primarily through pictures, and only you know the film you see in your head. "

" The only safe thing is to take a chance. "

" The greatest thrill is that moment when a thousand people are sitting in the dark, looking at the same scene, and they are all apprehending something that has not been spoken. That's the thrill of it, the miracle - that's what holds us to movies forever. It's what we wish we could do in real life. "

" I've learned that many of the worst things lead to the best things, that no great thing is achieved without a couple of bad, bad things on the way to them, and that the bad things that happen to you bring, in some cases, the good things. "

" Chicago is not a very fashion-driven place. Nobody says, 'Oh, you've got to come see these fabulous people!' Nobody cares. "

" Comedy is brutal. It's powerful, though. "

" It's very weird about movies: you never know which ones are going to stay alive and which one are going to be meaningless. When you're there, you couldn't possibly predict it. Some things slowly die, and others slowly stay a while. "

" There's nothing in the American dream about character. It's a serious flaw. "

" I'm in the theater because of two plays: 'A Streetcar Named Desire' and 'Death of a Salesman.' "

" All movies are pure process. A commercial movie isn't less process than an art movie. You can't make your decisions about a film on the basis of, 'Is it important enough? Is it serious enough?' It's either alive or it's not for me. If it's alive, I want to do it. "

" Very often when a story really holds us, it gets pushed away because it's too close for comfort. "

" That seems to me the great American danger we're all in, that we'll bargain away the experience of being alive for the appearance of it. "

" Fear of comedy is all so much about who you do it with. "

" 'Catch-22' was a nightmare to make, and everybody was unhappy except me. "

" If you lose a parent, it never goes away. As a kid, I dreamed about my father coming back for 15 or 20 years. I still do sometimes. "

" I don't expect anything from reviews. Sometimes I am bemused by them. "

" We are being entertained all the time - in the bathroom, on the train, in our beds. Sure, there is a smaller audience for theater. But we know from radio that entertainment never goes away, it just changes. And more power to it. "

" Everybody wants to be known. Everybody's a Kardashian. "

" I keep coming back to it, over and over - adultery and cheating. It's the most interesting problem in the theater. How else do you get Oedipus? That's the first cheating in the theater. "

" Most great plays of the past lose their grip on immediacy; on application to our lives right now. "

" I came to love silence, because it's so rare, and it's now my favorite aural condition. "

" Improvisation has to do with exploring something like two brothers in a room together. You find out things about situations by discovering the things that they aren't saying. It's a way to explore scenes. Sometimes it's more useful than others, but it's always there to see if there's anything that you might improve. "

" I don't know that a political climate - as long as it's still a free country - makes much difference in the film world. "

" Limitations are inspiring: they lead to thinking, so I don't mind them. "

" It's not a film-maker's job to explain his technique, but to tell his story the best way he can. "

" I still think that luck is what a lot of the good things come from. It's simply the luck of where you are, when. "

" It took me forever, learning improvisation, because I had studied with Lee Strasberg - I dropped out of Chicago and went to his classes in New York for a couple of years, once or twice a week. What I didn't realize was I was learning directing because he wasn't all that good about acting, not for me. "