Top 88 Charlie Kaufman Quotes

As a writer, or as a filmmaker, you have to present yourself, and part of what yourself is is what you’re interested in, or what you think is funny, or what you think is sad, or what you think is horrible.

There’s no way to approach anything in an objective way. We’re completely subjective; our view of the world is completely controlled by who we are as human beings, as men or women, by our age, our history, our profession, by the state of the world.

I can talk endlessly about characters, or why someone did this or that, and what that dynamic and interaction is. I really love it, and I think that actors really respond positively to the fact that I like to talk about that stuff, because I’m not sure that all directors do.

There’s theater in life, obviously, and there’s life in theater.

I wanted to deal with someone’s idea of their relationship.

So when I write characters and situations and relationships, I try to sort of utilize what I know about the world, limited as it is, and what I hear from my friends and see with my relatives.

As a writer, or as a filmmaker, you have to present yourself, and part of what yourself is is what you’re interested in, or what you think is funny, or what you think is sad, or what you think is horrible.

I have a lot of health anxiety.

I like titles that are a little difficult, because it’s kind of counterintuitive.

I really don’t have any solutions and I don’t like movies that do.

There’s this inherent screenplay structure that everyone seems to be stuck on, this three-act thing. It doesn’t really interest me. To me, it’s kind of like saying, ‘Well, when you do a painting, you always need to have sky here, the person here and the ground here.’ Well, you don’t.

I like titles that are a little difficult, because it’s kind of counterintuitive.

I hate a movie that will end by telling you that the first thing you should do is learn to love yourself. That is so insulting and condescending, and so meaningless. My characters don’t learn to love each other or themselves.

I have a lot of health anxiety.

I do have, at different times, a certain kind of self-consciousness in the world, an insecurity.

When I’m writing, I’m trying to immerse myself in the chaos of an emotional experience, rather than separate myself from it and look back at it from a distance with clarity and tell it as a story. Because that’s how life is lived, you know?

We try to organize the world, which isn’t organized the way our brains want to organize it. We tell stories about the people in our lives, we project ideas onto them. We project relationships with people, we make our lives into stories. I don’t think we can avoid doing that.

I do have some theatrical background. I’ve written plays and seen plays and read plays. But I also read novels. One thing I don’t read is screenplays.

I’ve had to deal, a lot, with my own sense of intimidation at meeting famous people – especially actors, but really any famous people.

I don’t write genre stuff in any form. I’m not interested in it. I always try to do the opposite of that.

We have the script, we have the actors, and we’re trying to figure out what this is, and you don’t know what it is. You have to be open to what it’s going to become rather than have this thing that you’re trying to get to, which is boring.

I think of myself as a guy who tries to write screenplays and now has tried to direct one. Anything more than that is meaningless and it gets in the way of being a real human being.

I don’t subscribe to anything. I sit there and I try to think about what seems honest to me.

I was trying to figure out what a memory feels like.

I tend to not only read reviews, but also every little stupid thing online. It’s a very bad idea, and there’s a lot of angry people in the world. And it’s weird to absorb all that weirdness.

I’m trying to tell a story and do it truthfully.

The only honest and generous thing for me to do is to give people myself. That’s all I’ve got as an artist, so I want to do that in an unflinching way.

We have the script, we have the actors, and we’re trying to figure out what this is, and you don’t know what it is. You have to be open to what it’s going to become rather than have this thing that you’re trying to get to, which is boring.

So when I write characters and situations and relationships, I try to sort of utilize what I know about the world, limited as it is, and what I hear from my friends and see with my relatives.

I have a personality that tends to be somewhat compulsive, and I do tend to think in a circular way. I dwell on the same things over and over and I try to figure out different ways of looking at the same issue.

The way I write is very much without kind of a goal. I have something I’m interested in and then I decide I’m going to explore it. I don’t know where the characters are going to go, I don’t know what the movie is going to do or what the screenplay is going to do. For me, that’s the way to keep it alive.

I do throw out a lot of ideas, and I forget completely about them.

I do have, at different times, a certain kind of self-consciousness in the world, an insecurity.

I’ve kind of come to the conclusion that what passes for realism in movies has nothing to do with reality and that my stuff is more realistic than that.

Sometimes I don’t like the books that I’m reading.

I think if I’ve worked anything through with screenwriting it’s that I’m not going to be able to work anything through.

I think that people have expectations of themselves and other people that are based on these fictions that are presented to them as the way human life and relationships could be, in some sort of weird, ideal world, but they never are. So you’re constantly being shown this garbage and you can’t get there.

My time on the set is the least of my involvement. Most of my time is in pre-production and post-production.

Before you start production, you have characters you have created without actors in mind, then all of a sudden you’ve got actors. They bring an enormous amount in creating these characters, and creating the dynamics between the characters that you’ve written.

I think that people have expectations of themselves and other people that are based on these fictions that are presented to them as the way human life and relationships could be, in some sort of weird, ideal world, but they never are. So you’re constantly being shown this garbage and you can’t get there.

I’m old enough, by a long shot, to remember going to the library and spending days researching. If I was looking for a line from a poem or something else I needed, that would be the trip I would have to take.

I do like escapism. I like going to the movies on a Friday night and seeing something fun.

Constantly talking isn’t necessarily communicating.

I have ideas written down some places, but usually I can’t find them. I’m not very organized.

I think I’ve had pretty good experiences for the most part with the people who have directed my screenplays.

Directing is a more pragmatic experience, where you have to deal with the restrictions of time and money that force you to make certain decisions you don’t have to make when you’re writing.

I want to try it to see what it’s like and see what my stuff looks like when I take it from inception to completion.

I do throw out a lot of ideas, and I forget completely about them.

My time on the set is the least of my involvement. Most of my time is in pre-production and post-production.

I’m in my mind a lot. I live there.

I graduated from college in 1980.

I think of myself as a guy who tries to write screenplays and now has tried to direct one. Anything more than that is meaningless and it gets in the way of being a real human being.

I think if something resonates, even if it’s surreal, it’s because it is relatable and I think that that’s a core issue for me.

I think if something resonates, even if it’s surreal, it’s because it is relatable and I think that that’s a core issue for me.

There’s no way to approach anything in an objective way. We’re completely subjective; our view of the world is completely controlled by who we are as human beings, as men or women, by our age, our history, our profession, by the state of the world.

I’m not a celebrity. I’m intentionally and defiantly not a celebrity. I don’t have any interest in it. I don’t have any talent for it. I keep my personal life out of my public life as cleanly as I can.

I’m not into extreme sports or something. I just live a quiet life.

I actually think I’m probably more interested in structure than most people who write screenplays, because I think about it.

I like actors – I used to be one.

There’s this inherent screenplay structure that everyone seems to be stuck on, this three-act thing. It doesn’t really interest me. To me, it’s kind of like saying, ‘Well, when you do a painting, you always need to have sky here, the person here and the ground here.’ Well, you don’t.

I think I’ve had pretty good experiences for the most part with the people who have directed my screenplays.