William Devane Quotes

I love documentaries, I like observing real people.

I think audiences are really thirsty for real shows about real people in any circumstances.

I read certain things about history. I don't like fiction. I read about stuff that's real, stuff that's goin' on in the world.

Even though I was making documentaries, my films had fictional elements to them. I think I like blurring those distinctions because so much of what we see on television purports to be the truth, but it's often largely imaginary - or wishful thinking, or any number of less honorable things.

There are some people who believe that these are not real stories with real people, but they actually are.

I think that truth is stranger than fiction, and it's nice to know the people you're making a movie about.

I'm following a real event and real people.

I've always been interested in how to present something that relates to our reality - which is not really... I don't even know if documentary itself does as good a job. It has its own problems in trying to get at the reality of the situation.

Fiction lags after truth.

I watch way too much C-SPAN.

Documentary is reality. It shows the truth.

From fiction, you do not get to learn much because it is only imagination. Whereas, from non-fiction, people can understand and learn from the realities it covers.

You don't necessarily need a script or actors to tell a compelling tale. Finding a person at a key moment in his life and rendering the truth as you see it - that's the truest form of drama.

I'm fascinated by documentaries, to begin with. Because of the nature of television, as opposed to theatrical, documentaries can be in this long form and take you on a journey.

I'm all about nonfiction. I rarely read fiction. I like to read about things that really happened, facts, real life situations. That's what inspires me.

I always read the papers, the political bits.

Everything I tell you is true, but this is factual.

There is a physics to the world, which non-fiction has a contract to stand in awe of, otherwise it becomes completely self-centered and ego-driven, which is the death of a memoir.

I certainly don't believe you documentary filmmakers. Like me, you are involved in making fiction, and your fiction is just as well organized and just as well predicated, but the big difference between me and you is that I'm honest and you're dishonest. I know I'm telling you lies.

The Washington Post was interesting because it's such a politically minded newspaper.

The harder part of doing a real story is that there are real people and you have a responsibility to not just go crazy with their lives and have them do things which are not their character, that they then have to live with.

I wanted the truth, and I wanted the news, and I'd be damned before I settled for anything less.

Granny Weatherwax was firmly against fiction. Life was hard enough without lies floating around and changing the way people thought.

In The Black Power Mixtape , you hear the voice of Angela Davis - not someone playing Angela Davis.

I don't watch like Sci-fi or things like that, I'm always more like real life is so endlessly fascinating to me.