David Harsanyi Quotes

People think that the people in Hollywood have some master plan. They just make the movies that people go to see. I think it's that simple. I promise you if people were lining up around the block to see a Bible movie, they'd make Bible movies from now to the end of time.

Entertainment and escapism - those are the bigger money-making films today.

Everybody's trying to make blockbusters.

I think that films about faith made for faith-based communities have a certain tactic.

The only difference from one $100 million budget film to another is which of the 12 box stars are getting $20 million to be in it.

The entertainment business remains a business of blockbusters, and increasingly so.

Hollywood has lost an enormous amount of quality.

Even fairly serious moviegoers can't shake this shadow of the corporate world.

Big feature films are another world.

When it comes to turning out movies, I'm for Hollywood.

I guess after Dances With Wolves they probably tried some derivative westerns, and if they didn't work, they said the western is dead and moved on to something else.

Producers and studios know what sells. It's nice to be one of the guys that can help sell a movie by taking his shirt off.

The way I like to describe Hollywood today is this: everyone wants to make 'Deliverance,' but no one wants to be Ned Beatty.

The movies have got more corporate, they're making fewer movies in general, and those they are making are all $200-$300m tent-pole releases that eat up all the oxygen.

A financial shift happened with 'Facing the Giants' and 'Fireproof,' where movies that were faith-based films were profitable. And people in Hollywood - like people in downtown U.S.A. - are out to make money.

Sure, 'Twilight' is really huge right now and everybody's freaking out over it, but it will go away soon and I will be back to doing what I'm used to doing: weird little movies that nobody sees.

When they make a woman's picture, they treat it like a 'woman's picture.' In the '40s, they didn't treat Joan Crawford movies like that, but as the big movies of their year. I'm upset that there's no 'Terminator' with a woman in Arnold Schwarzenegger's role. Because that would make just as much money.

Hollywood is tied hand and foot to the demands for artificiality of the masses all over the world.

It's the formulaic studio movies the make money, and when they do, the actors in them are automatically movie stars.

I know doing movies is where I need to be. That's where my audience wants to see me.

There are MAYBE 30 years worth of ideas out there... watch for the feature version of ER in about 25 years... Hollywood has become hopelessly chained to the bottom line.

Hollywood executives believe that money is both the be-all and end-all to the moviemaking process.

I win my awards at the box office.

I think it's always hard to find great roles, no matter what age you are. So I always say to people, 'You have to remember that Hollywood is in the business of making movies that they can sell tickets to; they're not in the business of finding great roles for actors.'

Last year, when 'Black Swan,' 'True Grit' and 'King's Speech' all grossed over $100 million, it gave studios and independent financiers the confidence to make daring movies and not do the same old you-know-what.