Top 390 Directing Quotes

Directing myself definitely made me a better actor. And, you know, I think actors have the best track record when they turn to directing. Writers, too. I knew how to direct actors because I’ve been there and I know what I like.

You know, Im directing a documentary about the history of Abbey Road Studios at the moment, so Ive been taken back to those times. There is a photograph of me aged three months on one of the sofas in the studio, so I was there before I can remember being there.

When the actor you’re developing a rapport with is directing, you feel much more camaraderie about scenes, and you can relate in a much tighter way.

To me, storytelling is a mystery. Especially when you’re directing.

To me, directing movies is just that. It’s a need to question myself and set the things that disturb me on the table.

I did all my directing when I wrote the screenplay. It was probably harder for a regular director. He probably had to read the script the night before shooting started.

One of the best things about directing movies, as opposed to merely writing them, is that there’s no confusion about who’s to blame: you are.

I’ve been directing more and more the last few years, I find it an enjoyable challenge.

I had heard all sorts of stories about Woody Allen’s directing – directorial approach. And some of them turned out to be myth, but one of them was that he doesn’t rehearse, and another was that he doesn’t really direct. If he doesn’t like it… he cuts it out of the movie or even replaces you. And he doesn’t talk to you.

I thought that there might be something unsatisfying about directing two Tolkien movies after ‘Lord of the Rings.’ I’d be trying to compete with myself and deliberately doing things differently.

I’ve travelled a huge amount, but almost all of it has been through work. I spent five years stationed in London in the special services of the American Air Force, producing and directing shows for the troops, which I absolutely loved.

I went to film school so I have a writing and directing background, and I think a lot of the material I’m interested in writing and getting out there is stories about anti-heroes and people you should just not ordinarily root for – trying to figure out a way of appealing to people they wouldn’t normally appeal to.

What I’m having is this conflict in my life right now, that in New York, I see my directing friends and I see acting friends and they’ve all got this level of passion about either or both of those directions that I’ve never really found myself having.

Directing is really my favorite thing to do, but if I never directed again, I’d be okay if all the work I did was good.

I always want to be telling stories in whatever fashion I can, and directing is really just understanding and learning a different element of that storytelling process.

Writing and directing, to me, was the logical evolution from my life as an actor: going from telling someone else’s story to actually creating my own. Perhaps one day I will do all three: write, direct, and act in the same production. That might get a little hectic, though.

In the Justice Department, responsibility for overseeing and directing investigations is lodged in the department’s prosecutors.

I’ve been doing a bit of screenwriting and producing, and even a bit of directing.

Culturally, as women, we’re raised to be very concerned with others’ approval in a way that men aren’t, but an inevitable part of directing and being visionary is that you have to be a boss, and as such, not everyone is going to like you all the time or agree with your choices.

I have no interest in directing. I’ve no talent for it.

I was the first woman to win a Tony for directing, but the second woman came along five minutes later.

I think what makes a good actor’s director is somebody who understands what I’m doing and is respectful of it, but who also has a vision and is directing me toward their vision in a way that feels productive.

In a nutshell, directing ‘The Gift’ was all about understanding how the complex machine that is ‘Game of Thrones’ works.

Well you know, Woody doesn’t rehearse, as opposed to my own method of directing where I really work with actors around a round table for weeks, examining the values of the material, so his technique is very different.

Writing feels safe, you know, it’s a hard job, but at least you’re in your office or wherever you are and there’s no one standing over your shoulder staring at what you’re writing. And when you’re directing, everybody’s looking over your shoulder.

Our decision to close on Sunday was our way of honoring God and of directing our attention to things that mattered more than our business.

When you’re directing, you see your ideas. You see them created right in front of you on the monitor and the sound stage. You get that experience all over again when you get into the editing room and you start playing with it.

Directing is: you’re overwhelmed the whole time. Your mind never stops. If you care about it. You wake up in the morning and you begin thinking about it and then you go to sleep at night and you’re still thinking about it.

I think in the old days, films really went for the shock, with the blood and guts, but movies are getting better. The writing and directing have improved a lot, because the audience demands it.

France isn’t just any country in Europe, and its president is not an ordinary leader in the world. Sometimes directing or leading the way is not enough, he has to initiate policies, as Nicolas Sarkozy was able to demonstrate during his term.

Music runs through everything I do – I even think musically; even when I was acting, but, especially, when I am directing. Directing is very musical.

One thing that everybody told me about directing was, ‘Never compromise’. And the whole job is a compromise. So it’s very paradoxical. How do you not compromise when the whole thing is about compromise?

At Hofstra, I got a very well rounded education. I studied acting, but they wouldn’t let me just study acting. I had to take classes in play analysis, directing, producing. I had no idea this would ever be relevant. And, of course, it’s what I used the rest of my life.

There’s only a certain amount of times in my life where I’m going to get to experience every single person directing their energy and focus on you, screaming at you.

All the theories that acting is reacting to imaginary circumstances as though they are real, and directing is turning psychology into behavior, those are all stabs at something that can’t be taught. All the great actors can’t talk about what they do, and they don’t want to begin to talk about it. They just do it.

I think eventually I’d love to get into directing.

2021 is my 40th year working in the industry and I can’t think of a better way to celebrate than directing ‘Holding.’ It’s a beautiful piece of writing with a great story and fantastic, full-bodied characters.

I love directing actors. In the last few years, I have started expanding my directing into workshops for actors who truly want to grow and learn. My mom was a high school drama teacher, and teaching makes me very happy. My workshops are nurturing.

Really, anyone in the business who transitions into directing as a writer or editor or an actor or a cinematographer, at some point you have to kind of take a leap and say, ‘I’m committed to this.’

The last few years I’ve been saying I was ready to quit. It wasn’t that interesting to me. Now that I’m directing, it’s all new again.

The process of writing and directing drives you to such extremes that it’s natural to feel an affinity with insanity. I approach that madness as something dangerous, and I’m afraid, but also I want to go to it, to see what’s there, to embrace it. I don’t know why, but I’m drawn.

In 2000, I realized I had reached that certain age when the parts get scarcer. So I decided to try my hand at directing.

I had kicked around the idea for Good Eats when I was directing commercials.

Directing a film was something I was yearning to do. I always wanted to see if I had the capacity to be a good storyteller.

Part of Washington keeping its promises is a focus on directing more dollars into our local classrooms.

Looking back, the most challenging thing for me was actually directing. It’s very tough. Being in front of the camera is easy since the director can tell me what to do. But being the director and giving people directions is the toughest thing for me.

I’ve been directing for 25 years almost, and I’ve only directed nine films in that time because I like to be careful.

I do like directing other people’s material.

As a director, your work is finished only when it’s on the screen. But I will always be an actor who occasionally directs. And no, I have no interest in directing myself. I wouldn’t be able to concentrate on both jobs at once.

It’s hard to get material. I haven’t made a movie before. I have two episodes of television that I think have come in really great, but it’s really hard to get directing work.

The most important decision you can make as a showrunner when you’re doing a pilot is who’s in it and who’s directing it.