Quotes by Terry Zwigoff - Page 1 | QuoteForever

A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z

A good script and perfect casting, that's 90 percent of the work.
Terry Zwigoff / Filmmaker
Casting
Percent
Work Good Perfect
Good Script
Script
Copy Quote
Certain types of films will never test well. My films never seem to test well.
Terry Zwigoff / Filmmaker
Film
Tests
Type
Test
Types
Copy Quote
I never saw a department store Santa as a kid. My mother was afraid to take me.
Terry Zwigoff / Filmmaker
Kids
Department
Mother
Santa
Me Never Mother
Department Store
Store
Copy Quote
Saying that all documentaries are the same is like saying all foreign films are the same.
Terry Zwigoff / Filmmaker
Documentaries
Film
Copy Quote
Oh yes, I've been approached to do all sorts of nonsense. How about a remake of 'West Side Story?'
Terry Zwigoff / Filmmaker
Nonsense
West Side
West Side Story
Remake
Copy Quote
If I start paying attention to the mechanics of a film while watching it, then it's generally a bad film.
Terry Zwigoff / Filmmaker
Mechanics
Paying
Copy Quote
I was inspired to do anything I could to get out of what I was doing... today, I'm motivated to pay the bills.
Terry Zwigoff / Filmmaker
Bills
Motivated
Pay
Today
Copy Quote
People think I have an interest in comics, but I'm only interested in comics from the '40s, like 'Donald Duck' comics.
Terry Zwigoff / Filmmaker
Donald Duck
Donald
Duck
Copy Quote
The main trouble with Hollywood is that the guys you have to pitch to, the guys who run the studios, are all business school grads.
Terry Zwigoff / Filmmaker
Business School
Studios
Pitch
Copy Quote
I gotta tell you, I don't have many close friends, and if I do wind up making friends with somebody, it takes me a long time, usually.
Terry Zwigoff / Filmmaker
Close Friends
Wind
Time Me Long
Gotta
Copy Quote
Dialogue that's distinctive, funny, peculiar, and specific is the main thing that makes me want to get involved with a film to begin with.
Terry Zwigoff / Filmmaker
Dialogue
Film
Get Involved
Copy Quote
It makes it difficult to decide which to go see, since no film about say, some tragic genocide in Africa is going to get a bad review even if it's poorly made.
Terry Zwigoff / Filmmaker
Film
Genocide
Made
Tragic
Africa
Bad Review
Poorly
Review
Copy Quote
Whereas my producer literally worked on this thing for 10 years and because I gave that presenter credit to David Lynch, she to this day never gets credit. It really kills me.
Terry Zwigoff / Filmmaker
Credit
Presenter
Me Day Never
David
David Lynch
Literally
Producer
Whereas
Copy Quote
The Weinsteins believe in test screenings. I don't. I don't think good films are made that way. Call me crazy, but I'd like to think you need a singular vision to make good art.
Terry Zwigoff / Filmmaker
Good Art
Singular
Test
Copy Quote
Just to get the actors to relax, listen to each other, and actually affect each other, there are a number of techniques you have to learn, and they don't all work on every actor.
Terry Zwigoff / Filmmaker
Relax
Affect
Techniques
Copy Quote
The last Christmas movie I really liked was 'It's a Wonderful Life,' probably. It's sort of a schmaltzy movie, but it's not without its dark moments. It still gets to me every year.
Terry Zwigoff / Filmmaker
Christmas
Wonderful Life
Life Christmas Me
Copy Quote
And I sense it was a rather constructed, almost half narrative fiction film in some ways. A lot of it was staged and manipulated to get those things in there that I knew to be strong.
Terry Zwigoff / Filmmaker
Narrative
Be Strong
Constructed
Manipulated
Staged
Copy Quote
I did turn down 'The Virgin Suicides.' I talked to the producers about it, and I just honestly told them that I didn't get it. Is it supposed to be funny, is it a thriller, what is it?
Terry Zwigoff / Filmmaker
Honestly
Talked
Thriller
Copy Quote
Maybe if I found something I was really passionate about, which is entirely possible, I would make another documentary, but it's not a good career choice for anybody. I don't recommend it.
Terry Zwigoff / Filmmaker
Career Choice
Documentary
Entirely
Recommend
Copy Quote
The things I want to make into a film, they're personal, esoteric things, and I don't expect anyone else to like them as much as I do. I generally like my films more than anybody else will.
Terry Zwigoff / Filmmaker
Esoteric
Anybody Else
Copy Quote
Well, that was certainly - to me, until we could film in Charles' room, I didn't even want to bother filming anything else. And in fact, I did hold off and that was the first thing we filmed.
Terry Zwigoff / Filmmaker
Bother
Anything Else
Charles
Filming
First Thing
The First Thing
Copy Quote
Because I found myself telling the story of his family to people without the visual aids that I was able to employ by filming them eventually. But I very much knew exactly what I was going to do.
Terry Zwigoff / Filmmaker
Aids
Hiv
People
Stories
Visual
Filming
Employ
Exactly What
Copy Quote
I try to make the set as relaxed and fun and stress-free as humanly possible, while still having control over things. It's usually tension that hurts a performance or makes it seem self-conscious.
Terry Zwigoff / Filmmaker
Fun
Hurt
Trying
Copy Quote
I hope they get something of interest out of it, but I'd rather they all hate it and I like it, instead of vice versa... I make films to please myself first, and if the audience likes them, all the better.
Terry Zwigoff / Filmmaker
Hate
Likes
Please
Vice Versa
Vices
Versa
Vice
Copy Quote
Chicago always hit me as such a gloomy place - I just remember all the snow getting dirty as soon as it would fall, all the decaying brown brick buildings around where we lived, all this soot all over the place.
Terry Zwigoff / Filmmaker
Chicago
Fall
Gloomy
Snow
Always Me Remember
Hit
Brick
Buildings
Decaying
Me Remember Always
Soon
Copy Quote
It's certainly a difficult time right now to try to make small, smart films. I'm not trying to be self-serving, but you get to Hollywood, and if you want to make something big and loud and dumb, it's pretty easy.
Terry Zwigoff / Filmmaker
Dumb
Smart
Trying
Copy Quote
That would be getting up at 5 am... I don't understand why film's shoot such brutal hours. I think it'd be worth it to not be so strictly cost-effective and have an 8 hour day. The film's would benefit in the end.
Terry Zwigoff / Filmmaker
Brutal
Cost
Thinking
Worth It
Would Be
Benefit
Cost-Effective
Shoot
Hour
In The End
Strictly
Copy Quote
I don't like most Christmas movies. They're pretty bad, though they seem to make tons of money anyway. Like this movie 'Elf,' I got the script for that, and I turned it down right away. Against my wife's better judgment.
Terry Zwigoff / Filmmaker
Christmas
Judgment
Anyway
Elf
Right Away
Tons
Copy Quote
There's no choice left in America anymore. Anything that's authentic and genuine, anything that grew out of any sense of tradition, is wiped out. We're left with this bland monoculture that's swept over the whole country.
Terry Zwigoff / Filmmaker
America
Choices
Country
Copy Quote
If I see my films described as 'quirky' or, even worse, 'snarky' one more time, I'm going to probably seriously consider an early retirement. All these years, I've labored under the conceit that they were "darkly humorous.'
Terry Zwigoff / Filmmaker
Quirky
Conceit
Humorous
Retirement
Time See More
Even Worse
Copy Quote
Crumb was such an influence on me. He's such a visionary, such a great artist, that he so shaped my artistic sensibilities on a certain level that I do owe everything to him. The way I see the world is largely changed by him.
Terry Zwigoff / Filmmaker
Great Artist
Great World Me
Certain Level
Crumb
Owe
Largely
Shaped
Sensibilities
Visionary
Copy Quote
I think the other misconceptions when the film came out, he was very upset that it was so widely released and so widely seen. And neither one of us - well, I think I had hopes it would be, 'cause I really did think it was something special.
Terry Zwigoff / Filmmaker
Something Special
Upset
Hopes
Misconceptions
Neither
Released
Widely
Copy Quote
So I told Robert from the start that if we couldn't get Charles and Max to take part, but especially Charles, that I didn't want to make the film. So would he call his mother and talk to Charles and see if Charles would at all be interested.
Terry Zwigoff / Filmmaker
Max
Charles
Robert
Copy Quote
For a long time, there was this rumor that I turned down doing 'Austin Powers,' which is not true. While they did send me the script, I don't think I was ever a serious consideration to direct it. I'm sure they probably sent it to 20 others as well.
Terry Zwigoff / Filmmaker
Austin
Consideration
Rumor
Time Me Long
Austin Powers
Time Long Me
Powers
Send
Copy Quote
I collect old Coon Chicken Inn memorabilia. I collect black memorabilia, like old minstrel posters. It was a real place. There was one in Seattle, one in Portland, and one in Salt Lake City. They started in 1925, and then they went out of business around 1958.
Terry Zwigoff / Filmmaker
Memorabilia
Portland
Salt
Salt Lake City
Seattle
Chicken
Collect
Inn
Lake
Real Place
Copy Quote
Luckily, he was in the process of moving to France at the time, anyway. But if he had stayed in the States, I don't know how he would have handled that, because it was getting pretty crazy. I mean, a celebrity which he really did not welcome. And I can't blame him.
Terry Zwigoff / Filmmaker
Time
Blame
Crazy
France
Moving
Welcome
Anyway
Handled
Luckily
Stayed
Copy Quote
People like light and silly, and they like stuff that's really energetic, and you get a character in a film bouncing around and screaming, people laugh. That's all it takes. I don't find that funny. To me, what's funny is dialogue and nuance of character and performance.
Terry Zwigoff / Filmmaker
Dialogue
Energetic
Nuance
Silly
Bouncing
Screaming
Copy Quote
I never thought in terms of a "breakthrough" film. I wasn't looking for fame or a career path into Hollywood. I was doing it for myself. I just wanted to make a film that I really loved. If other people liked it, great. But you can never guess what other people are going to like.
Terry Zwigoff / Filmmaker
Film
Path
People
Copy Quote
I think I have pretty good taste in the projects I choose to take on. It's a blessing and a curse - I certainly could have worked a lot more if I wasn't as selective, but I just can't bring myself to spend two years of my life slaving away on some project I'm not really enthused about.
Terry Zwigoff / Filmmaker
Blessing
Curse
Thinking
Copy Quote
I try to make a film that's very entertaining, very funny, but also gives you something to think about. And the strongest thing I have to offer is my point of view, to get across how I see the world in hopes that it can change the way other people see the world, hopefully for the better.
Terry Zwigoff / Filmmaker
Entertaining
Point Of View
Hopes
Copy Quote
I think my father kept struggling to get us into better neighborhoods, better schools. One of the worst jobs he had was folding shirts under these fluorescent lights all day at the equivalent of a Kmart. I remember visiting him at work, thinking, 'When I grow up, I've got to do anything else.'
Terry Zwigoff / Filmmaker
Folding
Shirts
Visiting
All Day
Work Thinking Better
Anything Else
Equivalent
Grow Up
Lights
Neighborhoods
Struggling
Copy Quote
A lot of things I have turned down ended up being a big embarrassment. Like that script, 'The Beaver.' I thought that was one of the worst scripts I had ever read. But everyone said, 'Ooh it's on the Black List.' Yeah, well, good for it. They're a bunch of idiots. I saw the final film, and there were no surprises.
Terry Zwigoff / Filmmaker
Black
Bunch
Embarrassment
Film
Said
Scripts
Worst
Yeah
Everyone
Beaver
Surprises
Read
Ended
Saw
Idiots
List
Ooh
Script
Turned
Copy Quote
The first scene I ever shot for 'Louie Bluie,' on that first day, I had never seen the camera before. I didn't know where to put it. I just knew what was strong about these guys and what I wanted to capture, so I tried to work backward from there and figure it out. Trial and error. Hopefully I got a little bit better at it.
Terry Zwigoff / Filmmaker
Capture
Trial And Error
Work Better Day
Backward
Error
Work Day Better
Trial
Copy Quote
I've stopped going to see art films because every critic gives them four stars and say things like 'masterpiece,' 'spellbinding' and 'mesmerizing.' I mean, they're doing that with my film, but I don't want to use those blurbs. Critical reviews aren't worth too much anymore because just about every film can get one or two of them.
Terry Zwigoff / Filmmaker
Masterpiece
Mesmerizing
Reviews
Stopped
Critic
One Or Two
Copy Quote
When I went around promoting 'Crumb,' there would be days I'd wake up in, like, Houston or Cleveland, and I'd step outside the hotel and get no idea where I was. It all looks the same: one big corporate, consumer theme park. It's all, 'Here's the Starbucks, and here's the Gap, and we'll go over to Banana Republic and the Cineplex.'
Terry Zwigoff / Filmmaker
Cleveland
Corporate
Hotel
No Idea
Promoting
Republic
Starbucks
Theme
Wake Up
Banana
Consumer
Crumb
Gap
Park
Theme Park
Copy Quote
I'm not trying to be self-serving, but you know, you get to Hollywood, and if you want to make something big and loud and dumb, it's pretty easy. It's very hard to go down there and make a film like 'Sideways,' which I thought was a great film. They don't want to make films like that anymore, even though that film was very successful.
Terry Zwigoff / Filmmaker
Dumb
Great Film
Loud
Self Serving
Sideways
Copy Quote
My hat's off to documentary filmmakers. I don't know if I'm ever going back to it. You're treated like a second-class citizen at most film festivals. You take the bus while everybody else is flown first-class. If you're a feature film director, you're put in a five-star hotel, and if you're a documentary director, you stay in a Motel 6.
Terry Zwigoff / Filmmaker
Festivals
Hotel
Citizen
Documentary
Everybody Else
Feature
Feature Film
Flown
Hat
Motel
Second-Class
Copy Quote
The thing I was up against in documentary films - was trying to get non-actors to convincingly play themselves in a way I'd come to know before the camera started rolling. And many non-actors can't do that convincingly, even if they just have to play themselves - they can't be naturalistic. And I would always want to recreate something I'd witnessed them do or say, and it just would be incredibly difficult because of the fact they weren't actors.
Terry Zwigoff / Filmmaker
Difficult
Film
Trying
Copy Quote

Related Filmmaker Authors

Wong Kar-Wai
Filmmaker
Thursday, Jul 17, 1958
Wim Wenders
Filmmaker
Tuesday, Aug 14, 1945
Wayne Gerard Trotman
Filmmaker
Saturday, May 16, 1964
Warren Miller
Filmmaker
Wednesday, Oct 15, 1924
Victoria Mahoney
Filmmaker
Velcrow Ripper
Filmmaker
Sunday, Oct 20, 1963
Tom Six
Filmmaker
Wednesday, Aug 29, 1973
Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
Filmmaker
Tiffany Shlain
Filmmaker
Wednesday, Apr 08, 1970
Thom Andersen
Filmmaker
Terry Zwigoff
Filmmaker
Wednesday, May 18, 1949
Takashi Miike
Filmmaker
Wednesday, Aug 24, 1960
Steve Sabol
Filmmaker
Friday, Oct 02, 1942
Tuesday, Sep 18, 2012
Stan Brakhage
Filmmaker
Saturday, Jan 14, 1933
Sunday, Mar 09, 2003
Satyajit Ray
Filmmaker
Monday, May 02, 1921
Thursday, Apr 23, 1992

View All Filmmaker Quotes

Top Authors

Francis Of Assisi
Saint
Thursday, Jun 24, 1182
Saturday, Oct 03, 1226
Napoleon Hill
Author
Friday, Oct 26, 1883
Sunday, Nov 08, 1970
Walt Whitman
Poet
Monday, May 31, 1819
Saturday, Mar 26, 1892
Bob Marley
Singer
Tuesday, Feb 06, 1945
Monday, May 11, 1981
Groucho Marx
Comedian
Thursday, Oct 02, 1890
Friday, Aug 19, 1977
Sun Tzu
Strategist
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Mae West
Actress
Thursday, Aug 17, 1893
Saturday, Nov 22, 1980
Kim Kardashian
Television Personality
Tuesday, Oct 21, 1980
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Poet
Wednesday, Oct 21, 1772
Friday, Jul 25, 1834
Henry David Thoreau
Author
Saturday, Jul 12, 1817
Tuesday, May 06, 1862
Ernest Hemingway
Author
Friday, Jul 21, 1899
Sunday, Jul 02, 1961
Robin Williams
Actor
Saturday, Jul 21, 1951
Monday, Aug 11, 2014
Pope Francis
Thursday, Dec 17, 1936
Kanye West
Songwriter
Wednesday, Jun 08, 1977
Thursday, Jun 04, 2015
Theodore Roosevelt
26Th U.s. President
Wednesday, Oct 27, 1858
Monday, Jan 06, 1919

View All Authors

Share This Page