Quotes by Paul Schrader - Page 1

All the animals come out at night.
Paul Schrader / Screenwriter
Animal
Night
Copy Quote
There's no escape. I'm God's only man.
Paul Schrader / Screenwriter
God
Men
Duty
Copy Quote
Don't ever let the viewer settle in and get ahead of you.
Paul Schrader / Screenwriter
Get Ahead
Settling
Viewers
Copy Quote
I want to be happy; why do I do things that make me unhappy?
Paul Schrader / Screenwriter
Unhappiness
Unhappy
Want
Be Happy
Copy Quote
Ultimately, it's an illusion that you can understand yourself.
Paul Schrader / Screenwriter
Ultimately
Copy Quote
Nobody has shot a strip club in black and white in a long time.
Paul Schrader / Screenwriter
Black And White
Clubs
Long
Copy Quote
People who act against their own best interests are interesting characters.
Paul Schrader / Screenwriter
Interesting Characters
Best Interests
Copy Quote
Anything that doesn't bore me I think is doable because it's keeping me awake.
Paul Schrader / Screenwriter
Awake
Bores
Thinking
Copy Quote
The secret of the creative life is to feel at ease with your own embarrassment.
Paul Schrader / Screenwriter
Creative
Ease
Secret
Copy Quote
The clock is impotent; mechanical time does not affect those living in an eternal present.
Paul Schrader / Screenwriter
Clock
Doe
Eternal
Copy Quote
That's just my disposition - to create a situation where you have to come up with something.
Paul Schrader / Screenwriter
Come Up
Disposition
Situation
Copy Quote
Screenplays are not works of art. They are invitations to others to collaborate on a work of art.
Paul Schrader / Screenwriter
Art
Screenplays
Works Of Art
Copy Quote
One of the things that I do like about filmmaking is that you find out how to solve new problems.
Paul Schrader / Screenwriter
Filmmaking
Problem
Solve
Copy Quote
'Taxi Driver' wasn't autobiographical in terms of the actual events, but I did draw on my own mental state.
Paul Schrader / Screenwriter
Events
States
Taxi
Actual
Autobiographical
Draw
Driver
Mental
Taxi Driver
Copy Quote
You can't take contradiction away. Part of the fun of it is that the contradiction never really quite goes away.
Paul Schrader / Screenwriter
Contradiction
Fun
Copy Quote
I teach a course in screenwriting at Columbia, but I've never taken a course and I've never read a book about it!
Paul Schrader / Screenwriter
Book
Columbia
Screenwriting
Taken
Copy Quote
I was looking for people who didn't have any preconceptions about films, what I call the "post-rules" generation.
Paul Schrader / Screenwriter
Film
Generations
People
Copy Quote
I get bored very easily. I find most movies boring. I go to movies and ask, "How do they stay awake making this?"
Paul Schrader / Screenwriter
Awake
Bored
Boring
Copy Quote
Let's just shoot in black and white. Don't explain why. Have no reason for it. Just do it because it's interesting.
Paul Schrader / Screenwriter
Black And White
Interesting
Reason
Copy Quote
Now I see it clearly. My whole life has pointed in one direction. I see that now. There never has been any choice for me.
Paul Schrader / Screenwriter
Choices
Destiny
One Direction
Copy Quote
I don't think it's very useful to open wide the door for young artists; the ones who break down the door are more interesting.
Paul Schrader / Screenwriter
Artist
Thinking
Writing
Copy Quote
I still think like a critic, and I still analyze films like a critic. However, it's not possible to write criticism if you're making films.
Paul Schrader / Screenwriter
Criticism
Analyze
Critic
However
Copy Quote
As screenwriters, we struggle with our own success. We have wallpapered our world and now we can't get anyone to notice the picture we just hung.
Paul Schrader / Screenwriter
Hung
Our World
Struggle
Picture
Notice
Copy Quote
You think it's a blessing to know what God wants? I'll tell you what he wants. He wants to push me over! Can't he see what's inside of me? All my sins.
Paul Schrader / Screenwriter
God
Blessing
Thinking
Copy Quote
Words are a completely different form of expression. The word P-E-N-I-S is an entirely different form of communication than a photograph of the same thing. H
Paul Schrader / Screenwriter
Communication
Different
Photograph
Copy Quote
I was raised as a Calvinist, which is doctrine-driven. And though there are many things wrong with Calvinism, you are at least encouraged to argue about things.
Paul Schrader / Screenwriter
Arguing
Doctrine
Driven
Argue
Encouraged
Copy Quote
Those artists who say that somehow therapy or analysis will thwart their creativity are completely misinformed. It's absolutely the opposite: it opens closed doors.
Paul Schrader / Screenwriter
Analysis
Artist
Closed Doors
Creativity
Doors
Therapy
Opposite
Absolutely
Artists
Closed
Opens
Somehow
Thwart
Copy Quote
Once you have a situation that is fresh, then you sort of believe in it and it becomes normal. So you do end up with protagonists that haven't been in other movies before.
Paul Schrader / Screenwriter
Believe
Ends
Normal
Copy Quote
The only economic paradigm that movies have ever known is capitalism. There were no church sponsors or state patronage. The idea was that if you'd pay to see it, we'll make it for you.
Paul Schrader / Screenwriter
Church
Ideas
Paradigm
Patronage
Pay
Sponsors
Copy Quote
If you write interesting roles, you get interesting people to play them. If you write roles that are full of nuance and contradiction and have interesting dialog, actors are drawn to that.
Paul Schrader / Screenwriter
Contradiction
Nuance
People
Play
Writing
Dialog
Drawn
Interesting People
Copy Quote
Contradiction is the heart and soul of character and drama. You're always looking for it. I loved her so much I hit her; that's character. I loved her so much I hit her again; that's even more character.
Paul Schrader / Screenwriter
Character
Drama
Heart
Copy Quote
The best advice is essentially that thing in the back of your mind that you really aren't sure of, and when you start to hear other people bring up the same concerns, you say, "Okay, let's address that."
Paul Schrader / Screenwriter
Advice
Mind
People
Copy Quote
Because many of the films I've made have had an intellectualedge, it's harder for me to lie. It's harder for me to go to peoplewith money and say I don't care about art, all I care about iscommerce; all I really want to do is make money.
Paul Schrader / Screenwriter
Art
Care
Lying
Copy Quote
I could be just a writer very easily. I am not a writer. I am a screenwriter, which is half a filmmaker... But it is not an art form, because screenplays are not works of art. They are invitations to others to collaborate on a work of art.
Paul Schrader / Screenwriter
Art
Half
Writing
Copy Quote
There's the generation that made the rules, the generation that codified them. The generation that broke them - that's mine. The generation that laughed at them - that's Tarantino's. And now there's a generation that doesn't know that there were any.
Paul Schrader / Screenwriter
Broke
Generations
Made
Copy Quote
Film noir is not a genre. It is not defined, as are the western and gangster genres, by conventions of setting and conflict, but rather by the more subtle qualities of tone and mood. It is a film 'noir', as opposed to the possible variants of film gray or film off-white.
Paul Schrader / Screenwriter
Quality
Noir
Tone
White
Copy Quote
You know, when you're in your twenties you use a great deal of symbolism. You somehow think that a character standing beneath a cross is more interesting than a character standing underneath a billboard, but when you get a little older you realize that there's not much difference.
Paul Schrader / Screenwriter
Character
Symbolism
Thinking
Copy Quote
The secret of the creative life is how to feel at ease with your own embarrassment. We're all in the dirty laundry business and we're being paid to take risks and look silly. Race car drivers get paid to risk their lives in a more concrete way; we get paid to risk our lives in an emotional way.
Paul Schrader / Screenwriter
Dirty
Emotional
Silly
Copy Quote
There's something wrong - the performance, the weather, the set design, the lighting. Something is not working. And so you say, "Give me 10 minutes." When you're first directing, you're terrified. But when you've been in that situation enough times, you know that under pressure, it will come to you.
Paul Schrader / Screenwriter
Design
Giving
Weather
Copy Quote
All these teachers and [screenwriting] books mean you see movies that have been worked over by more committees wielding more rules, that all originality and authorship is lost. That's why you're seeing superstars like Brad Pitt in THE FIGHT CLUB and Tom Cruise in MAGNOLIA. They're desperately searching for people writing and directing off-formula movies.
Paul Schrader / Screenwriter
Teacher
Book
Writing
Copy Quote
I would not have made any of my films or written scripts such as Taxi Driver had it not been for Ingmar Bergman, What he has left is a legacy greater than any other director.... I think the extraordinary thing that Bergman will be remembered for, other than his body of work, was that he probably did more than anyone to make cinema a medium of personal and introspective value.
Paul Schrader / Screenwriter
Directors
Legacy
Thinking
Copy Quote
I had this whole issue of doing a crime film in the 2010s. The genre's been mined very, very heavily. Post-Scorsese, post-Tarantino, post-Guy Ritchie, what do you do? I wasn't attracted to pulp so much as all of a sudden I had a pulp problem. I had to find a way to make this interesting, because there's a lot of crime films that come out on VOD every week, and a number of these star Nicolas Cage.
Paul Schrader / Screenwriter
Issues
Numbers
Stars
Copy Quote
When you have people who are embarrassing themselves for a living, who are making themselves look foolish and vulnerable and emotional for a living, your day-to-day reality is going to be a high-wire act. People are going to get in fights. People are going to get upset. People are going to walk off set. People are going to call each other names. It happens on every film that has any emotional people.
Paul Schrader / Screenwriter
Emotional
Fighting
Reality
Copy Quote

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Paul Schrader Quotes - Page 1

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