Michelangelo Antonioni Quotes

Writing is a very lonely occupation. To write you need to concentrate, to concentrate you need to lock yourself away. No distractions; you want your stream of thought uninterrupted.

It amazes me how much noise there is on a set while people are trying to focus and do their jobs. But there's some kind of order within that chaos.

It's just what I am. When I am in the zone making one movie, I just didn't want to read anything else or do anything else, so I don't really develop projects.

I think there are times when you walk onto a set you can potentially be either intimidated or distracted by what's going on around you.

Writers are often alone when they work. Hours pass in silence as one long moment; light fades as day turns back to face the coming night.

If I start thinking, 'Is this movie going to open? Is this movie going to do well?' I'm not focusing on the job. The job is to make a good movie.

One constant writing ritual, no matter what I'm writing, is that I cannot write if people are around me. It wigs me out - the idea that someone is reading as I'm writing stuff.

I like to isolate myself when I work because I end up losing my voice by doing interviews all day.

I knew that I'd end up directing because I'm so hands-on with my films.

I want to direct, I want to be part of something creative, something with quality.

When I'm writing, I'm in an isolation chamber. I'm not one to think about that outside world stuff when I'm writing.

Silence and solitude are more distracting to me than chatter and commotion.

I can't write if someone else is in the house, not even the cleaning woman.

I try not to picture a reader when I'm writing. It's like trying to make a great table but not picturing anybody sitting at it.

I don't like to work with assistants. I'm already one too many; the camera alone would be enough.

I think I would have been so much in awe of the movie set, the people and what everybody's job was, that I don't know if I would be able to concentrate on the character.

I like to just work with great directors.

I don't know about other writers, but for myself, to write I must be relatively quiet - it's very difficult to write with the telephone and the doorbell ringing and conversation going on; I'm not that good a writer to write through all that!

Writing a book is a very lonely business. You are totally cut off from the rest of the world, submerged in your obsessions and memories.

When I'm in the middle of making a movie, I have blinders on; it's all about just getting the movie out.

As soon as you start figuring out what you're going to do, something will interrupt it.

When I'm directing a movie, nothing else matters.

I've always been fascinated with everything behind the camera and in front.

I've tried writing with music on, but I find it distracting.

I realized that filmmaking is an eminently scalable act. No matter how big or how small, there's joys and stresses that will all scale themselves magnificently to fit the production.