Billy Bob Thornton Quotes

'The Indian Runner' was easy. It had been incubating in me for eight years, and by the time I sat down to write the thing, I had all the pictures in my head.

It's not just about acting. I love film, I'm a director now, I love writing, I love producing, I love having a company that makes films and to be prolific and have a place to put all the ideas that are constantly bubbling up inside of me and that don't let me sleep at night.

When you're writing a screenplay, it's like you're dreaming the film for yourself again and again and again until it becomes almost like a memory before you make it.

I see pictures in my mind and become the character in the song as I'm writing. It's kind of method songwriting, where you're the actor in the song.

I think I came to film-making through writing. I started to write, and people, teachers, responded to my writing.

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.

All the films I do, I write the scripts, I direct.

With directing, you've got to find something and drag it up from its inception, and I'm at the early stages of doing that again. There's something all-consuming and addictive about that.

I think when I'm drawing, I'm seeing what's happening on the page almost as if it were unfolding like a movie in my head.

When I make a movie, I have both a specific and vague, amorphous dream idea of what the movie is going to be. Of course, I don't actually know what it's going to be, but I'm still striving to get to some place with it.

When you're drawing something, you kind of run a movie in your head. You might close your eyes or stare into the distance and kind of see a movie unfolding and, you know, grab a certain moment or think, 'Oh, yeah, that's when we need just the point that he appears around the corner but just as she's getting into the car,' you know?

I have seen too many screenwriters of promise become formula addicts and slaves to stop watch structure. Spend that time watching movies, reading screenplays, reading plays, and most importantly - write from your gut.

What I like most about directing is creating a world more so than anything. To me, the music is the wrapping paper on that world.

The way you write a screenplay is that you close your eyes and run the movie in your head and then you write it down.

I don't tend to cast roles in my head because I spend so much time with these characters and the drawings that they're complete in themselves, you know what I mean?

I make up stories in my head all the time, but I've never written them down. But I write a lot of story songs. Any song I'm singing, I sort of see it like a movie in my head. That's why a lot of times I close my eyes when I'm singing.

I use a lot of film images, analogies, and imagination.

It's sort of one ongoing process where writing ends and directing starts.

I work out the other bits, too, but I need to know what I look like, very early on. And then it's like a template; I'll fill that person out. If I get that out of the way, then I'm all right.

I feel like I have so many stories basting in my mind, and they come busting out when they're ready.

I have trouble writing if I can't picture how things are going to look.

I write on a visual canvas, 'seeing' a scene in my thoughts before translating it into language, so I'm a visual junkie.

When I make music and I'm talking on records, it's like I'm painting a picture. In my mind, I'm seeing a film.

Working on script development, casting, editing, and music is incredibly inspiring to me, and it's wonderful to see something you love come to life.

You are always drawing from your personal life and using your imagination to fill in the blanks.