Bob Balaban Quotes

I think I would have a better time writing films rather than directing.

What you do is get the right director and the right screenwriter and the right cast. It's a fantastic job.

Directing a film was something I always wanted to do, something that seemed an inevitability in my development as an actor.

We stayed there 24 hours a day. We lived and ate and slept that movie. We were enthusiastic, not just because of the movie, but because we had such a great collaborative team. We had a really good time. It was very much a family.

I know I'd like to direct a film at some point, and maybe I'll write it.

All the other guys I think had a scream on Lock, Stock. They just had a laugh and a crack, and thought it would never come out; they were just having a good time. On this one, I felt that.

Hits and flops will come and go. But what stays with you is the experience you had while shooting a film. I am happy learning something new each time.

My dream would be producing, maybe directing - definitely not writing - one feature film.

I produce more movies than I write, but when I write, it is such an immersive, intense process that it probably takes as much or more time than producing multiple movies.

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.

By the time I was 10 or 11, I knew I wanted to make films.

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

I met Robert Rodriguez working on a movie called 'Roadracers.'

When you work on a movie, especially an independent movie, it's a lot of work to make it! It's not just our job as actors - so many people are working so hard, and even the littlest movie takes a lot of work.

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.

You can act in five, six, or seven films in the time it takes to direct one film.

And I think one way or another it's evident to those who work with me that as a writer, a director, a friend, as somebody's there that's very anxious to get the movie made.

He wasn't directing it, of course, so I didn't work with Hitchcock.

I am no expert on tax; I'm a film producer. I read books and think about which ones would make good movies, and then I work with directors in order to make them.

When you think of a movie, most people imagine a two hour finished, polished product. But to get to that two hour product, it can take hundreds or thousands of people many months of full time work.

I think about my films for a long time, maybe years, but I write them in days.

When I was doing the first 'American Pie' movie, I was just happy to have a job. We had a good time, and it was a great group of people, but like any project that I've worked on in my career, you just put your best foot forward, and you're all working together to make the best movie possible.

When I make a live-action movie, it's a very physical process. It's like running a marathon.

When I was younger I didn't really know what a director did: I knew I loved movies and I figured the actors made it up! And then when you get to 12 years old you start thinking, What does a director do? It was really an organic beginning: this looks like something I want to do, I can't believe people get paid to do it!

Making a film, setting it up and getting it cast and getting it together, is not an easy thing.