Xavier Dolan Quotes

It is sometimes said that the tragedy of an artist's life is that he cannot realise his ideal. But the true tragedy that dogs the steps of most artists is that they realise their ideal too absolutely. For, when the ideal is realised, it is robbed of its wonder and its mystery, and becomes simply a new starting-point for an ideal that is other than itself.

Ambition is a very dangerous thing because either you achieve it and your life ends prematurely, or you don't, in which case your life is a constant source of disappointment. You must never have ambition.

I did my best work in The Mosquito Coast. I know it wasn't such a big hit, but for me it was more meaningful than anything else I'd ever done.

I am obsessed with beauty. I want everything to be perfect, and of course it isn't. And that's a tough place to be because you're never satisfied.

I've done a few studio films in the last few years where I feel like I've done good work, and then I only end up in two scenes. That's been very disappointing.

It must be quite mysterious to some people why I bother to carry on. Because, you know, I don't sell that many records.

The artist who imagines that he puts his best into a portrait in order to produce something good, which will be a pleasure to the sitter and to himself, will have some bitter experiences.

You finish a movie and you think, there, you've done it, really well, or best you can. But if you watch it, you see it was just bollocks.

I'm never happy with what I've written. You imagine, before you start, there's a cathedral, and the moment it starts on the page, it's a garden shed. And then you just try to make it the best shed you can.

I had a beautiful childhood, so my adulthood has been really frustrating because it's - half the time it hasn't been as good as my childhood.

Burroughs was never really that pleased with the way popular culture and society treated his character. He tried to make a few movies of his own as a result, but they weren't very good.

I was tired of illustration. You'd work so hard on a commission and it would go in to a magazine, and you'd turn the page and it was gone.

Few things can make us feel crazier than expecting something from someone who has nothing to give.

Sometimes when you make a record and it's not successful, you just don't want to go through that process for a while. You want to have your wounds heal.

Yesterday's promise, like tomorrow's never comes.

Both parents worshiped individual achievement, but because of the Depression and the war, they never achieved what they wanted and deserved. So their ambition and high expectations were transferred to me.

By the time I'm done with a project, it's taken so long that I usually don't even like it anymore. I only see the things I wish I'd done differently.

'Generations,' we slaved over for a year; we worked it over and over and over again, and in the end, it just fell short.

Actually, my career as a music director turned out to be a disappointment. I believed I gave good songs but the response and recognition from the industry was not great.

But my problem was that I did an hour for Comedy Central and nobody seemed to care.

I think one of the saving illusions of the film business is everything seems like it's about to happen. It's always about to happen. It's only looking back that you see the wasteland.

When the only thing you look forward to in life is lunch, you know you have had your just desserts, and it is time to call it a day.

I worked from 8 A.M. to 12 A.M., and sometimes until 2 A.M. There were no shifts, just a few dozen people, and we all polished glass. I didn't enjoy it.

When you romanticize something so extraordinarily in the hopes that it will divert you from agony, you're destined for a letdown.

Post 'Shaitan,' I felt frustrated, as I was not getting the kind of work that I wanted to do.