Paul Thomas Anderson Quotes

Making a movie and not directing the little moments is like drinking a soda and leaving the little slurp puddle for someone else.

There are no great scripts - just great films.

Film shouldn't be a pain. It's a creative process.

You never have any idea where your movie's going to go when you're shooting - you're in this little bubble. Everything you care about is getting the next step right: getting the script right, finding the right actors, shooting it. Then you spend half a year in a dark room editing your film, and you don't talk to anybody.

You know, that's the reality, but I always shoot movies for the screen, because that's just the experience that I want to get out of it.

I was very fortunate in having David Fincher, the director come to me. Now I've seen the finished product, I feel that every bit of the nine months we spent on the film was worth it.

I don't like to dwell all day over one scene as you do in a big feature.

Directing has completely changed the way I write and watch films.

Making 'Beloved' was an awesome experience.

I have stories that I'd like to maybe one day consider directing, but you need a lot of time to write and put it together.

The only way you can learn about making films is by making them, by putting your stamp on the thing.

Getting your screenplay right is the most important thing you'll ever do on your film.

I wrote 'All is Lost' while editing 'Margin Call'. I did that long before I knew if I was ever going to get to make another movie.

The truth is, when I started to make films, I was terrified. I had a huge difference in what I was writing in the screenplay and what was on the screen after. Sometimes there was a big gap. Now, the more I have experienced, the more I do movies, the more I feel that the dream is closer to the screen. It's coming with experience.

When I am shooting, I am inside the theatre, when I am in the editing room, I am inside the theatre. I always try to feel what they will feel. I see a film, not as a director, but as the audience. If I am entertained, they will be, too.

When you make a movie, you do it so piecemeal. You're doing it, not only scene by scene, out of order, but shot by shot, line by line. And there's this idea that the director has the whole thing in his or her head and they're going to somehow weave it all together in the end.

I think you should make movies as long as the story dictates.

More often than not, the experience of shooting the movie has been disappointing and the end product has been a mere shadow of what I hoped it would be. But immersing myself in the story - that's what I like best of all.

In film, you have to let go sometimes.

I haven't really tried to write a movie. It's tough to get into that mode.

I'm in awe of directors like the Coen brothers who can shoot their script and edit it, and that's the movie. They're not discovering the movie in postproduction. They're editing the script they shot.

I like to make movies I like to watch.

Films are all about decisions, and that's what I love.

I loved being in Close Encounters, just to watch Steven Spielberg working was exciting.

Becoming a producer enables you to empower yourself, to make the film that you want to make. I have desires to make movies - I have movies I'm developing, and things that I'm interested in.