Terry Zwigoff Quotes

I'd love to win an Oscar; that would be great. I hope to get a feature film that I've made get a wide release. I'm not sure that's ever going to happen.

Usually when I am in a movie that is about to come out, if people don't love it, that is fine - I can handle it.

I think you kind of hope for people to gush over movies, but I think the opposite way is great sometimes, too. I'd rather have a movie that you're angry about and that you're talking about the next day, than something you forget about when the popcorn goes into the trash.

No one knows why a film does well or not. The reasons for this are not important. What is important is the intention you start the film with and the final state when the film releases on a Friday - whether people liked it or not.

Every filmmaker wants to get their audience talking.

You [as an actor] have a responsibility to Jonathan's book and you have a responsibility to talk about a subject that is going to be, whether it's contentious or not, it's going t bring up a huge, emotional response from people. A lot of people will say they are ready or they're not ready.

I thought it was too wacky for the general public. On his original opinion of his movie's chances for success, 1997.

I always feel like every film takes the franchise and hangs it in the balance.

When you make a movie, you just send it off into the world. You never actually live it with the crowd.

My first experience of that was with my first movie which I did in India. And it was so different from other people. I find that "Oh my God." Every time the music is slow I feel that people are going to get up and go out. You get this nervousness. But, to my surprise, people starting singing the song even before it came in. They started singing along a week later, after release, which was very cool.

It's very exciting to have fan response and fan reaction.

People are sort of numb to watching violence, but sexual activity is still as strong as it ever was in terms of generating response.

I want to make a movie that has enough impact that it's going to do what it needs to do. But I don't want to make a film that serial killers masturbate to.

Trust me, when they read the [Oscar] results, my face was...frozen. But then I thought about it, and I just decided just to...let it go.

I assumed just from being around, all these years, that people would immediately glom on to, Well, it's a departure, and it's a dystopian kind of thing, and that's natural, of course. But it's surprised me - not even surprised me, but it's pleased me - how much people have been responding to the way the book was written.

As soon as one of my records goes on, it makes a vast portion of the public nervous. They get spooked by it. To some people who have ears to hear, it's a delightful, refreshing change. But to most of the public, it's a load of homemade-sounding nonsense.

I would say that it's quadruple what I've had when I've won major championships in the past. I've gotten faxes and phone calls from all over the world. It's been overwhelming. It's really changed my opinion of humanity.

First of all, people were not expecting [Donald Trump] to win. I still think they're in shell-shock four months later. Get over it.

People don't stop me on the street and throw things at me. But I'm aware of what that dynamic is, so whenever people react strongly to a character and say that they hate me, I take it as a job well done. And for most people, there's a sense of removal. Most people are not saying, "Oh, my god, I hate you!" Most people that have reactions say, "I love to hate your character."

If the public dislikes one of my Post covers, I can't help disliking it myself.

I wrote another wrestling film script. And we finished the shooting [with Lloyd Phillips]. But Henry Winkler came out with his own wrestling film, which did poorly. So the studios passed on ours, and it never got released.

I just think it's really funny and entertaining. I mean, I don't necessarily take them really seriously - I don't even think a lot of really good films get seen. But I don't think that's what it's about. I mean, how amazing was Ellen Burstyn in Requiem For A Dream ? Especially as she was acting with herself most of the time. I don't understand how a performance like that can't win. I was so affected by that movie that I had to turn it off. I felt as if I was on drugs and my heart was about to leap out of my body.

Actually, it's nice when people hate what you do, because it's still a passionate feeling about it. It's kind of when they're indifferent, you're like, "Oh, well, what am I really doing?" It's nice to go one way or the other.

At the end of the day, regardless of whether you're doing a huge budget film or a small budget film, you still want the film to do well, and have people see it. That's the whole point. You want to put some kind of message into your films, and you want people to see it.

The mindless rejoicing at home is really appalling; it makes me fear that the first blow against Tokyo will make them wilt at once...I only wish that [the Americans] had also had, say, three carriers at Hawaii.