Alex Garland Quotes

I love being a writer-director. I couldn't imagine directing without writing it. You have to write and tell your stories - that's what directing is to me.

When I start on a film I always have a number of ideas about my project. Then one of them begins to germinate, to sprout, and it is this, which I take and work with. My films come from my need to say a particular thing at a particular time. The beginning of any film for me is this need to express something. It is to make it nurture and grow that I write my script- it is directing it that makes my tree blossom and bear fruit.

There's something that comes into you that's so exciting when you're directing.

I think making a film is as much knowing what you don't like as what you do like, and avoiding the things that you don't like like the plague and making sure that they never appear onscreen in any shape or form.

I love writing. I think writing and directing go hand in hand.

There are many aspects to directing that have a romantic place in people's minds.

I've had some success at writing and directing, and I like it. It's infinitely more creative than just acting, and I have things I want to say and do.

I want to produce and direct and write one day.

I don't believe in development. I believe in pre-pre-production, so when I sit down with an idea for a movie, I'm thinking I'm going to make this film. I don't think about anything else.

For me, the most important thing is the writing - and certainly the director. But if the writing isn't there, it doesn't matter who the director is!

To make films, it always begins with two words: what and how. First of all, you have to find a story, or what are you going to tell? And you have to find a way to tell it visually.

I like writing and directing. I enjoy telling stories, and I think it's born in a comedian to end up directing.

The movies sort of tell you what they want to be as you're writing them.

There's more to directing than plotting scenes out.

There's no way I see myself as a director. Direction is far too creative.

I don't see myself directing things I don't write because, to me, directing was just an extension of the writing process.

Producing is hell, writing is frustrating, acting is really satisfying, directing is heaven.

I definitely in filmmaking more and more find writing and directing a means to harvest material for editing. It's all about editing.

As a director, you try to find what is creative.

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.

All the films I do, I write the scripts, I direct.

When you direct a movie, you're basically looking at a story, the way you want to look at it. You bring that director's vision, and I'm totally open for that.

The director is the only person who knows what the film is about.

I love writing. Given a choice, after directing for all these years, and if given an army of talented directors, I would not direct at all.

I read an interview with Mark Wahlberg, and he was like, 'I might read a script and love it, but it's all about the filmmaker.' I think that's a good lesson for me.