Paul Thomas Anderson Quotes
Quotations and aphorisms by Paul Thomas Anderson:
Acting is the hardest job in the entire world. By far. Harder than ditch digging.
~Paul Thomas Anderson
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There's a lot for screenwriters to steal from songwriters, in terms of getting to the point.
~Paul Thomas Anderson
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Film school is a complete con, because the information is there if you want it.
~Paul Thomas Anderson
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I didn't have any desire I might have had 10 years ago to shoot every single word that I wrote.
~Paul Thomas Anderson
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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.
~Paul Thomas Anderson
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I am always looking for that nuance, that moment of truth, and you can't really do that fast.
~Paul Thomas Anderson
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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.
~Paul Thomas Anderson
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Clinton used to like to get out of the White House a lot. He would take night trips to McDonald's, and stuff like that. I think he wanted to get out of the house.
~Paul Thomas Anderson
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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.
~Paul Thomas Anderson
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I write from my stomach.
~Paul Thomas Anderson
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I have a feeling, one of those gut feelings, that I'll make pretty good movies the rest of my life.
~Paul Thomas Anderson
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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.
~Paul Thomas Anderson
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I'm completely aware of the fact that I'm a control freak.
~Paul Thomas Anderson
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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.
~Paul Thomas Anderson
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To make a film, the final big collaborator that you have is the composer.
~Paul Thomas Anderson
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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.
~Paul Thomas Anderson
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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.
~Paul Thomas Anderson
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You know, I'm really not that competent at describing things musically.
~Paul Thomas Anderson
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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.
~Paul Thomas Anderson
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Well I'd really love to work with Robert De Niro, because he's still the most talented actor out there.
~Paul Thomas Anderson
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I actually enjoyed the struggles that we had trying to shape 'Blood', to get the pacing right, the rhythm of it.
~Paul Thomas Anderson
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I'm not really a Sundance baby, but they helped me so much I feel I have to acknowledge it.
~Paul Thomas Anderson
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Screenwriting is like ironing. You move forward a little bit and go back and smooth things out.
~Paul Thomas Anderson
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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!
~Paul Thomas Anderson
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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.
~Paul Thomas Anderson
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I had the standard movie geek childhood, because for as long as I can remember, all I wanted to do was make movies.
~Paul Thomas Anderson
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Of course, I'm no dummy.
~Paul Thomas Anderson
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No, really. Just do it. You have some kind of weird reasons that are okay.
~Paul Thomas Anderson
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Crazy is so hard to play, there's nothing you can really tell an actor.
~Paul Thomas Anderson
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As I have got older and become a father, there's less and less time for films.
~Paul Thomas Anderson
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The films that I love are very straightforward stories, like really old-fashioned stuff.
~Paul Thomas Anderson
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My writing has a lot to do with who I am, and what my life is like, and my relationships to people.
~Paul Thomas Anderson
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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.
~Paul Thomas Anderson
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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.
~Paul Thomas Anderson
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I've never been a fan of whimsical or confusing storytelling.
~Paul Thomas Anderson
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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.
~Paul Thomas Anderson
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I'll rebel against powers and principalities, all the time. Always, I will.
~Paul Thomas Anderson
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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.
~Paul Thomas Anderson
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I don't think it's a director's job to peek behind the curtain too much.
~Paul Thomas Anderson
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How do I respond to criticism? Critically. I listen to all criticism critically.
~Paul Thomas Anderson
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I don't want to be the angry guy.
~Paul Thomas Anderson
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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.
~Paul Thomas Anderson
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I don't think the competition's so rough, within the majority of movies made in Hollywood.
~Paul Thomas Anderson
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