Richard Greenberg Quotes

I mean, if you're being directed very precisely by somebody who has admiration and who's really smart, it's great. If you're being told what to do by a nincompoop - and luckily that hasn't happened very often - it can be very frustrating.

I have so much respect for directors. It's a tremendous amount of pressure; you have to keep steadfast and keep what you know is right.

I realized why directors are such horrible people - in a way - because you want things to be right, and people will just not listen to you, and there is no time to be nice to people, no time to be delicate.

In Nine Inch Nails, I've been the guy calling the shots since inception. I'd gotten used to that.

I guess I don't come to the work without baggage. I have an idea of what I want my pictures to look like in my head, and if they don't match up, I find it frustrating.

I love my fans in Philadelphia, but this is the hardest place in the world to play in. And I think it's the hardest place to play in to be a superstar. Just to be the No. 1 guy. All eyes on you - because everybody wants you to be perfect, but not themselves.

You're supposed to be a control freak when you're an artist. That's the whole point of having a vision: Why have one if you're not going to protect it?

I am a very impatient director.

If you're the star of a show, the next one has to be as good or better, and if you're doing a series, if anything goes wrong, it's your fault. There's nobody else to blame.

Everybody expects you to play well, and when you don't have the results, that's tough.

Directors are the fulcrum of the movie. They guide us well, not merely rein actors in. Whenever we stray, they bring us back on track.

Becoming artistic directors is an enormous responsibility and not one that we take lightly.

Directing is a mixture of compromise and perfectionism. When you lose the judgment of which is more important at any particular moment, you're time is over. They find you out and send you packing.

I always used to associate good directors as being ones who are totally extreme and have an answer for everything and there are no loose ends.

(When asked what a director does) I help.

I've got this reputation for shooting one take which is a wonderful reputation to have but it's hard to live up to.

When you're on set, you're like, 'Everyone's judging me because I'm the director, and everyone thinks I'm doing this because I just love myself and I want to do everything.' Part of it's true: I do want to do everything, and I do kind of love myself.

I think anytime you put the weight of the world on yourself saying, 'I have to perform,' or, 'I have to get a completion. I have to throw a touchdown,' nine times out of 10, I think you're going to fail.

If the director has clarity of thought and vision, you are bound to just go ahead and do what he wants to do. I respect that.

It is not easy to be Patrice Evra.

As the days progressed, I felt as if YNK' was my first film. That is because the director was hellbent on perfectionism. He was insistent about getting the best out of me.

The pressure of success is suffocating.

When you try to do everything perfectly, it gets very tiring.

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

Michael Bennett, Tommy Tune and Agnes de Mille fought to be director-choreographers. They were just not going to do it any other way because the choreographer is so often at the bottom of the creative totem pole when you put a show together. So with that power you get a more direct point-of-view and that helps something called style.