Tom Stoppard Quotes

A film is different than a script. The text of the script is what it is.

There are three things that are important for a film. Number one is story, number two is story, number three is story. Good actors can save a bad script and make it bearable, but good actors can't make a bad script good - they can just make it bearable.

When you read a play, the words speak to you. When you read a script, there's no way you can tell if that's the way that movie will turn out.

A film is made for actors and actresses, not for singers.

I used to say that theatre was my favourite thing. But the more I do film, the more I appreciate it.

Well, there's no question that a good script is an absolutely essential, maybe the essential thing for a movie.

Where film is infinitely superior to any other medium is emotion and story and character.

If you're sitting in the audience, you probably can't see the preparation and work that goes into creating a great scene or a great part, but I can assure you that a good film depends on lot of different things falling perfectly into place.

Just telling a story. That's cinema. It's not silent, black and white. It's a simple story that's well made.

The hardest thing about writing a script is you finish it, but it doesn't mean anything. It's not like a novel or short story - a script is meant to be made into a movie.

I've always loved film more than theater.

I guess the first screenplay of mine that was done was 'Falling in Love' with Robert DeNiro and Meryl Streep.

There are so many elements that make a good film. You need a great director who's driving it.

If the script is not good, the film will not work.

In drama, you're interacting with other actors to tell the story. The camera is like the theater: it's the artistic fourth wall. In a screen play, you don't look at the camera and communicate with it. But with hosting, you're looking right into the lens and talking to the people. It is a different style, and it's fascinating.

Language is just a communication tool; it is the content that decides the fate of a film.

I enjoy making films, but my heart is in the stage. Every night you have to be on. There's no second take.

To make a film is easy; to make a good film is war. To make a very good film is a miracle.

If you just love movies enough, you can make a good one.

When you are acting, you are just one piece of the puzzle. You don't see how everything fits together. It feels like you have less authorship over the entire product. In directing, you take the entire picture into account, so you're challenged in a different way.

When on the set of a film, you have to play natural for entire scenes in a very unnatural environment. You have to express emotions and interact with other actors and also use your voice.

I am not at all interested in theories about cinema. I am only interested in images and people and sound. I am really a very simple person.

In a theater, the part is mine and I can control it as I want to. In the movies, I don't have direct contact, and I am fighting technical machinery.

Then there are actors my age like Ethan Hawke, he's in 'Moby Dick,' I love his work. I've been lucky. Alfred Molina, he has real class.

Details are the only thing that separates one movie from another.