Andrew Dominik Quotes

You don't need to change something if it is working.

You don't throw the baby out with the bathwater, but you want to get rid of the bathwater so the baby can swim the next couple of days and be OK.

I'm not sure I want to preserve the old ways just for the sake of saying, 'I don't believe in change.'

Once you have a blueprint down, you start talking to all the other heads of department to see if and how they can help to execute what you've imagined, and so things change and evolve. And then you have to make it work within the budget and time frame, so things change even more.

The most healthy way to be creative is to work with what you have and not sit around wishing you had something different.

I believe that your creativity increases when you evolve with changing technology.

I don't really know what I'm doing, to be honest. I come up with things, and maybe it works, and maybe it doesn't, and I try to learn from my castmates and director and from everyone.

Life is like school. You aren't going to be born knowing what to do in every situation. You learn little by little.

There is always a way to get what you need, and I really believe in taking what you have to make what you need.

As a writer, I think about films I work on in a traditional Hollywood kind of a way. I'm curious to see how it translates.

The business of taking a book and transforming into a script to make this thing called a film - it's a mysterious process to me; sometimes it works.

When you're first starting a show, any show, you learn what works and what doesn't work, and it's a kind of trial and error thing.

I've written tons of scripts, and when I wrote 'The New Girl in Town,' I read it to my parents, and they suggested I make a movie out of it. I got a few friends together, and I shot the movie in one weekend, and then my mom and I edited it.

Some issues have no solutions. If no solution comes, then you should leave it as it is. If you hit a road where you have no solution, it is best you don't touch it.

You just have to get on with life, there's no alternative. You could curl up in a ball on your bed, but that's not going to achieve anything.

I don't think I write differently when I'm writing a screenplay, as opposed to a stage play or a teleplay. Maybe if I were in a film class and there was time to think about it, we could point out differences.

I don't like the way most people think. It's imprecise. I find that when parents ask me questions, they ask very imprecise questions. They say, "My kid has behavioral problems at school." Well, I have to say, "What kind of problems? Is he hitting? Is he rude? Does he rock in class?" I need to narrow questions to specifics. I am very pragmatic and intellectual, not emotional. I do get great satisfaction when a parent says, "I read your book, and it really helped me."

If it ain't broke, don't break it.

Don't argue about the difficulties. The difficulties will argue for themselves.

Making a film is like learning the ropes all over again.

Based on the experience of my life, which I have not exactly hit out of the park, I tend to agree with that thing about, If it's not broke, don't fix it. And would go even further to: Even if it is broke, leave it alone, you'll probably make it worse.

I've always approached screenplays and so forth with, "How would it really happen?" Not "What's the movie version?" but "What's the real-life version?" Then I just follow my nose.

When I'm writing novels, even screenplays, it's never an actor I have in mind; it's always the version in my head of who the character is. Once somebody gets cast, I have to adjust a little bit to who they are.

I see screenwriting as a bit like a math equation which I have to solve.

Directing is a reactionary job more than a creation job. The job is to react whether it's moment one, the first time you read the script or see an article or read a book or notice something happen on the street and have an idea for a movie, and it just continues from there on in. You're just reacting to dialogue, a performance, an audition, a headache, a piece of furniture, a piece of clothing.