Diane Lane Quotes

With a good script a good director can produce a masterpiece; with the same script a mediocre director can make a passable film. But with a bad script even a good director can’t possibly make a good film. For truly cinematic expression, the camera and the microphone must be able to cross both fire and water. That is what makes a real movie. The script must be something that has the power to do this.

As an actor you have to bring to the table your creative input. But when a director like Ridley Scott says I want you to do this this way, you know when he gets to the editing room he has a reason for it. It's like watching a masterpiece.

And I'm not anti-sequel, but I just feel like there are very few ideas that are meant to be continued.

I will work with a director who has good material because at the end of the day, that's what counts.

There are no great scripts - just great films.

In America there's no way I can make the kind of movie I like to make.

There is no sense in doing a wonderful script with somebody who can't direct because that is a disaster.

You have to realize that when I started to work on 'Aladdin', Disney Theatrical wasn't in existence. I suppose I had always hoped that 'Aladdin' would be somewhere on the runway.

No, I didn't become disenchanted. I just couldn't paint like them.

Look, Hollywood's a mecca, but it's not the final answer. You pick up a camera anyplace in the world, you can make a movie.

Do I have a small movie in me? Yeah, probably, when I'm 60. But I'm not Hal Ashby, I'm not Roman Polanski. I'm true to myself. Whether you like it or not.

As a writer, you have control of the words you put on the page. But once that manuscript leaves your hand, you give control to the reader. As a director, you are limited by everything: weather, budget, and egos.

I think it's always challenging to look at a script and make it your own while maintaining the sense of what the style of the show is.

My advice to anyone adapting a novel is that once they've read it and learnt to understand it, then they must throw it away and never look at it again!

I want to write and direct and kind of do my own thing.

Gene Roddenbury felt that television was being wasted. That it had the potential for enlightenment and even inspiration.

I try to steer away from doing something that's just commercial instead of sticking to a good script.

You can just start shooting things and see how it goes. But time is still money, so you have to know when you are finished. It's not like painting a picture which you could go on refining for 20 years - with a film you have to stop at some point, and that is no bad thing.

I've always found the script to be more of a skeleton, the template.

Before 'Memphis,' I had never considered working on a musical. But when Joe DiPietro sent me the script, I heard the entire score in my head.

It's down to the actors to show the writers the potential of the character.

I do not differentiate between a commercial and an indie project as long as there is a strong subject and the character in the script is relatable.

My job is really to... everyone is reading the script, and my job is to make sure we all interpret it in as much the same way as possible. And then I give them the freedom to sort of - to get their performance across and then make suggestions where things are not working and accentuate and push things where they really are working.

When you get scripts and you really enjoy reading them, you know it's a good project.

All great scripts need not reach silver screen, and every good story can't be narrated in a 2-hour film.