Alan Taylor Quotes

(When asked what a director does) I help.

If I get a note on my script or my films, what I say to a studio executive is that, 'You know, this is the film of my legacy, and I never want to be sitting in a theater looking up on the screen and seeing something that I don't believe in.' I will never do that.

The one thing I want to do - and I am doing - is starting my own production company, for me to produce and direct in the future. Have a bit more say and control - become the storyteller more than just the character. I want to choose the story, plant the seed, and watch it grow. I just want to have a bit more involvement.

I love writing. Given a choice, after directing for all these years, and if given an army of talented directors, I would not direct at all.

If you are making a record, you are the one saying 'action', and you are the one saying 'cut,' and you have to be sure that the most interesting thing is not going on outside the frame.

Films are all about decisions, and that's what I love.

Becoming a producer enables you to empower yourself, to make the film that you want to make. I have desires to make movies - I have movies I'm developing, and things that I'm interested in.

I want to direct one day. I want to write my own thing and really be behind the scenes because you have more creative control.

As an actress you can participate, you can be a co-author, help the director. But I always wanted to be able to make the big decisions.

There is a director for a reason, because a director knows what's best for the movie. You just give your director as much as you can to work with, and hopefully, the decisions they make are going to be great.

As a filmmaker, the only way that I understand how to make a film is holistically.

I think making a film is as much knowing what you don't like as what you do like, and avoiding the things that you don't like like the plague and making sure that they never appear onscreen in any shape or form.

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.

I want to make movies that I would want to watch as a fan.

Some directors hand over portions of their movie to their head of department to the point where it's like, "I'm not going to talk to you about the costumes, but I'm going to let you talk to the expert." Rather than, "You want to talk stitching, let's talk stitching. You want to talk grade of leather? Let's."

Film is a collaborative process, absolutely, but I am a control freak.

I wanted to do a film for a while, but I never found a script that I felt I was going to be the right person for; because if you've never made a film, you're not taught how to make a film, and you feel like you lack skills.

When you're directing something, you absolutely have to be involved in all layers of the process.

If you're directing, it doesn't really matter any more if it's going straight to TV - what matters is whether you have the resources to make a story that moves you.

I've always said the one advantage an actor has of converting to a director is that he's been in front of the camera. He doesn't have to get in front of the camera again, subliminally or otherwise.

I'm proud of 'Sinister' because Scott and Cargill did a great job on the movie, and I set up a framework for them to make what they wanted to make. They gave me the idea, and I figured out how to get it out into the world.

I don't want to be a director. I want to direct. There's a difference.

I got to do Disney Sunday movies. I got to do a TV pilot there. And it really helped me to realise that I needed to not just be a writer, but a producer, to see my work up on the screen the way I wanted it to look and play.

The Weinsteins believe in test screenings. I don't. I don't think good films are made that way. Call me crazy, but I'd like to think you need a singular vision to make good art.

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