Stephen Daldry Quotes

We spend our time searching for security and hate it when we get it.

You get so used to a world that you complain, but never actually want anything different. Why crave the unfamiliar?

What if I told you that 10 years from now, your life would be exactly the same? I doubt you would be happy. So, why are you so afraid of change?

I don't know where I see myself next month let alone five years. My whole life is last minute. I enjoy the spontaneity of it; I like not knowing what I will do next or whether I will be in the country next week. I just enjoy being around a creative environment.

The reality is, some people don't want you to change or go anywhere different.

Americans are so direct. They'd ask me, 'What's your five-year plan? Do you have a five-year plan?' I don't know what I'm having for my tea tonight let alone a five-year plan.

People don't make changes because things are wonderful.

My advice today, to established acts and new-coming acts, is the same advice I'd give to myself: pause for a minute, and really think about 'What is your goal? Where do you see yourself?'

But I won't work with the exact same crew film after film because I feel the work would get a little complacent.

I spent 26 years in the business without ever knowing what I was doing a month from now.

When you are too specific on a target, it can drain you. Ask me where I will be when I am 60, and I will have no answer to give.

As soon as you know what you're doing, you're doing it wrong.

So easy to fall into a rut, isn't it? Why should ruts be so comfortable and so unpopular?

Most of us are not real eager to grow, myself included. We try to be happy by staying in the status quo. But if we're not willing to be honest with ourselves about what we feel, we don't evolve.

I don't really have any interest in playing the same part again and again. Let's just keep everything crossed that doesn't happen.

Habit is necessary; it is the habit of having habits, of turning a trail into a rut, that must be incessantly fought against if one is to remain alive.

I seem to - knock on wood - land on my feet and work, but you can never get too comfortable, and that's kind of a good thing.

I don't like change that much.

As we get older, people close down. We get less adaptive, less flexible - literally. Curiosity can diminish, and you want safety. You want what you know.

I don't really like to say, 'This is where I'll be in five years,' because I truly have no idea.

I find in my career that I never know what's going to happen in two months.

I am a bad planner, I cannot really plan my future, so I am keeping my expectations very grounded.

I think people don't really like change.

In any case, I am not a great one to make plans for the future.

You can't plan your future.