Thelma Schoonmaker Quotes

I'm not saying 'The Godfather' trilogy was bad - because it was brilliant - but that was fiction. It was based on reality.

What was so amazing and inspiring about 'GoodFellas' was that it showed the foot soldiers; the people more at the bottom as opposed to focusing on the godfathers and the guys at the top.

My favorite movie is 'Goodfellas.'

Some of your worst gangsters are guys who were very low-key.

People say, 'Gee, you do a lot of mafia movies.' I think I've done two, out of 60.

It wasn't easy getting 'GoodFellas' started.

'The Godfather' was the glorification of a bunch of bums who never existed.

I don't know if I would have had the same career had I not done 'GoodFellas.' Probably not. Would I have been cast on 'The Sopranos?' Who knows if there would have been a 'Sopranos?'

As we all know, sequels can be tricky.

I was always interested in the 1920s and the gangster world, in general.

With every film, the pressure is on the rise for the next.

If you are an industry kid, the first film is given to you on a platter. However, the pressure and expectations are immense.

'Goodfellas' has kind of got it all. That was probably one of my favorite films as a kid, so I carried a picture of 'Goodfellas' in my wallet.

I think 'GoodFellas' is just a perfect film. From an efficiency of storytelling standpoint, from an entertainment standpoint, from a performance standpoint, from a use of music standpoint, from a cinematography and editing standpoint - to me, it's just a perfect movie.

The landscape of cinema is not original. Not to say there aren't great movies being made, but it's much easier for studios to make movies that have built-in audiences. So it's all remakes, adaptations, a lot of remakes of adaptations.

After the modest success of my first film, I found it very daunting to have to live with that kind of burden of expectations.

There's always the pressure to make the movie good.

Certainly there's pressure while your making the movie.

Oh Young Frankenstein - that's right, Body Heat, Raiders Of The Lost Ark. I mean, you know, it - they just keep going on and on and on - Mission: Impossible. And, you know, I think that the writers are having so much fun now with them that, you know, half the time, you know, people are just sitting around saying - trying to think of what's a great movie to copy.

Trying times will begin when I will take up my second film as that's when people will take me more seriously. I will have to prove myself too.

Expectations are kind of lethal for art, I think.

The reason why Hollywood cranks out so many sequels and adaptations is because the audience is so overwhelmed with choices, the only way to get them in the theater is to give them something familiar.

I mean, I'm always happy to be compared with Scorsese!

Pressure, to me, was creating a 'Star Wars' film, then sitting alone in a theater with George Lucas and showing it to him, the guy that created the word 'Wookiee' and R2-D2. That was pressure.

The hardest thing about writing my second album is that I had 20 years to write my first album.