Words matter. These are the best Paul Thomas Anderson Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
Well I’d really love to work with Robert De Niro, because he’s still the most talented actor out there.
My older sister was at the cusp of new wave, and I had older brothers from my father’s first marriage who were rock ‘n’ roll guys, so I was exposed to a lot of popular culture.
I don’t want to be the angry guy.
As I have got older and become a father, there’s less and less time for films.
I don’t think the competition’s so rough, within the majority of movies made in Hollywood.
I am always looking for that nuance, that moment of truth, and you can’t really do that fast.
I have a feeling, one of those gut feelings, that I’ll make pretty good movies the rest of my life.
I had the standard movie geek childhood, because for as long as I can remember, all I wanted to do was make movies.
But I’d be lying if I didn’t say that every time you go to make a film, you’re desperate to either do it better than you did it last time or to not repeat yourself.
I remember being taught in school that you would underline things that you liked. I remember just underlining everything as a kid, thinking, ‘This has all gotta be important!’ I would just underline the whole thing!
I actually enjoyed the struggles that we had trying to shape ‘Blood’, to get the pacing right, the rhythm of it.
So with ‘There Will Be Blood,’ I didn’t even really feel like I was adapting a book. I was just desperate to find stuff to write.
I really subscribe to that old adage that you should never let the audience get ahead of you for a second. So if the film’s abrasive and wrongfoots people then, y’know, that’s great. But I hope it involves an audience.
Screenwriting is like ironing. You move forward a little bit and go back and smooth things out.
It felt like the first thing, but when I first started out, I got a job adapting a book by Russell Banks called ‘Rule Of The Bone.’ I didn’t do a very good job. I didn’t really know what I was doing in general, let alone how to adapt a book.
The films that I love are very straightforward stories, like really old-fashioned stuff.
I didn’t have any desire I might have had 10 years ago to shoot every single word that I wrote.
I’ve never been a fan of whimsical or confusing storytelling.
I think my job is to try and be as honest as I can with what is in my mind and how I feel – I think that’s what you’re supposed to do, if you’re a good writer. So I try to do that. I know I do that. I do do that.
There’s a lot for screenwriters to steal from songwriters, in terms of getting to the point.
Of course, I’m no dummy.
You have to be a brat in order to carve out your parameters, and you have to be a monster to anyone who gets in your way. But sometimes it’s difficult to know when that’s necessary and when you’re just being a baby, throwing your rattle from the cage.
Film school is a complete con, because the information is there if you want it.
I always had a dream about trying to make a movie that had no dialogue in it, that was just music and pictures. I still haven’t done it yet, but I tried to get close in the beginning.
I had never read Upton Sinclair. I didn’t read ‘The Jungle’ in high school or anything like that. But it’s pretty terrific writing.
You know, I’m really not that competent at describing things musically.
I’ll rebel against powers and principalities, all the time. Always, I will.
I don’t miss scenes at all the way that I used to miss them when I was younger making a film. It’s actually quite fun to get rid of them now.
I write from my stomach.
No, really. Just do it. You have some kind of weird reasons that are okay.
Crazy is so hard to play, there’s nothing you can really tell an actor.
It’s a gamble you take, the risk of alienating an audience. But there’s a theory – sometimes it’s better to confuse them for five minutes than let them get ahead of you for 10 seconds.
My dad was this sort of avant-garde guy who did all kinds of weird things. He was a true original and anybody who met him never forgot him.
No matter how many times you do it, you don’t get used to the sadness – for me at least – of coming to the end of a film.
I’m completely aware of the fact that I’m a control freak.
How do I respond to criticism? Critically. I listen to all criticism critically.
To make a film, the final big collaborator that you have is the composer.
I’m not really a Sundance baby, but they helped me so much I feel I have to acknowledge it.
Acting is the hardest job in the entire world. By far. Harder than ditch digging.
I don’t get a sense of American pride. I just get a sense that everyone is here, battling the same thing – that around the world everybody’s after the same thing, just some minor piece of happiness each day.