Robert De Niro Quotes

I've been on a lot of sets, and I've been around a lot of directors, and I've been working for many years now, but stepping in the shoes of being the decision maker and the guy that everybody is relying on at some point, yeah, it was challenging for sure. One thing is that you're responsible for a large group of people.

Directing was a big learning experience for me because I had to deal with every aspect of everything-all this constant decision-making, with people asking you questions at every moment, and you have to have answers for them all.

Collaboration is just, really, a group of people getting in a room with their eye on a very similar prize and wanting to come out with the same show. The director, ultimately, is the guy in front of whom the buck stops. So, he has to have the courage to prevail. But, he has got to have a huge amount of respect for his collaborators.

There is an isolated experience to being a director. It's very communal because there's a crew, but it's only you. You're the one on the hook.

There's a joy and a pain about directing where the dreams you have are becoming concrete but the attention to detail, the need for time is such that it's overwhelming at times, and the stream of responsibility.

I've learned that when I'm directing, I hate when people are always questioning everything and trying to give me directions.

I haven't worked with a director who is a crazy person at all.

When you are captain at the same time, that's when it gets difficult and when your own game starts to decay because you have other worries and pressures.

I think the quarterback position, moreso than in all of sports, no other position compares - you rely on so many people to do your job.

As a director, people are trusting you with their lives, with their stories.

Luckily, as a director I can just tell people what I need and I don't need to tell them how to get it.

Your director is your everything and you devote yourself to them and you want to help create their vision.

A director is what a director wants to be. If you want to force something, you can fight to the death and maybe get fired, but it's your job to help push things along.

(When asked what a director does) I help.

I'm very much a leader in a lot of the work that I do or that I've done in my career.

My philosophy of leadership is to surround myself with good people who have ability, judgment and knowledge, but above all, a passion for service.

I don't think I know enough about acting to direct. You need to be a slight megalomaniac, not where you want to take over the world, but where you want to make every single decision and the buck stops with you. It's an awful lot of stress.

A good director has to be a captain - he has to work with a lot of people every day.

It's not my job to try and alter the director's style - he's in charge, and I'll always give him my trust.

I'm learning more and more to share creativity with the crew and actors. A film crew is more powerful if you listen to them, but it does make my job more tough because I have to listen.

If the world ran the way a crew runs a set, we'd have a better, more progressive world.

I'm a believer in trusting the director.

Something I learned in the Marine Corps that I've applied to acting is, one, taking direction, and then working with a group of people to accomplish a mission and knowing your role within that team.

I enjoy directing more when I don't have to direct myself. I like when I can just be the director.

There are two qualities that I've noticed in good directors: One is that they have their vision very strongly in place; and two is that they listen to everyone's opinion and still remember their vision.