Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I have a very linear mind.
A lot of independent filmmakers are really catty.
I like scripts. I spend a lot of time writing them.
You can watch any Hitchcock film and be blown away.
I really don't care about plot. I really, really don't.
I wrote 'Mud' for Matthew McConaughey and had never met him.
The real cost is always more than just the money you shell out.
I think the way you make a movie dictates the movie that you make.
I care about narrative structure; I care about how stories unfold.
I thought 'Mud' would be such an easy film for people to understand.
I really don't know how to tell you what it feels like to be a parent.
Actors are real. It's a real skill, and it exists, and talent really exists.
A lot of people have a belief system that is strictly based on religious dogma.
Write dialogue that supports the situation and the characters, as you find them.
Your reaction when you lose control in a situation is to try and hang on tighter.
I've been just unsuccessful enough not to have been given a big opportunity too soon.
It's amazing how far you can get into a plot before you figure out what you're doing.
Making movies is really hard. It's a very complex process, with many, many variables.
I think only the movies you do remember are the films you had an emotional connection to.
I think Warner Bros. are probably some of the best people in marketing films in the world.
I can talk to execs very clearly, very plainly. I don't get nervous in front of them anymore.
Whenever I write, I try and approach my stories from some kind of universal theme or idea or emotion.
I'll be honest: 'Badlands' changed my life: it really did rewire my brain as to how film can operate.
I outline and outline and outline, and then I'm very specific about the stuff I write. That's my process.
I love 'Lawrence of Arabia,' big sweeping films. I want my films to feel that way, to be on a big canvas.
It took me a year just to edit 'Shotgun Stories.' Actually, it took me two years to edit 'Shotgun Stories.'
Nature is the purest thing we can touch and observe. It can be the most beautiful and also the most devastating.
There's one right place to put the camera. I'm a big believer in that. You'd think you could put it anywhere. Nope.
I'm really calculating when it comes to these scripts - I'm really calculated about character behavior and dialogue.
Marriage is tough. I can tell my wife all day long that I love her, but it doesn't mean anything if you don't show that.
It takes people being alone in front of the computer at three in the morning to write opinions about movies, apparently.
My characters aren't chess pieces. I don't move them around some big board. I actually care about these fictitious people.
I loved, in 'Starman', the use of anamorphic lenses, the creation of blue light, and Carpenter's use of the widescreen format.
'Indiana Jones' was me growing up. I could quote lines from 'Tango and Cash' as much as I could quote lines from 'The Searchers'.
If you want someone to show up and execute your script for you, seriously, there are a lot of great people out there. Don't call me.
I grew up in Arkansas, and I went to Little Rock Central High, which was the site of a desegregation crisis in '57. I graduated in '97.
I'd love to just continue making original films from scratch, but it doesn't mean I won't try my hand at something else in the meantime.
Marriage isn't about a collection of scenes over ten years of two people telling each other that they love each other. It's about commitment.
I'll say this: I think from a directing standpoint, 'Loving' is my most accomplished film. Strictly from a technical, directing point of view.
I first read 'Tom Sawyer' when I was in 8th grade, 13 years old. I realised since that Mark Twain just bottled what it felt like to be a child.
My first job in the film business was working as a production assistant, and then a production manager on a documentary about Townes Van Zandt.
I want all of my films to be grounded in reality, and I think 'Midnight Special' is the most grounded film I've ever made, in spite of its genre.
There's a reason why I use film. It's because it's the best representation of how our eyes work. I really believe that. I think it's better than digital.
I've only seen one snake out in the wilderness, not behind glass, and I froze. I literally couldn't move. So to say I have a fear of snakes would be true.
Sometimes you'll write while listening to a piece of music and think it's great, but then you'll go back and read it without the music and go, 'This sucks.'
There are great advantages of making things on the independent market. There's freedom and control there, and kind of a cleanness to the process that I like.
Definitely when you give a script to an actor, it's like dropping a capsule in water and the fizzing starts. That's when the thing starts to live and breathe.
'Take Shelter' is a tough movie because there's no humor in it, so there's really no way to judge how you're doing - whether people are still with you or not.
I have gained a lot of confidence in my process of making films. It does't mean I'll make a successful film or even a good film, but I know how to make my film.
When my son was 8 months old, he had a febrile seizure. You know, if you're in the first year - my wife and I refer to it as the 'darkness.' You're just underwater.