Alex Garland Quotes

Getting your screenplay right is the most important thing you'll ever do on your film.

I consider my job as a screenwriter to pack a script with possibilities and ideas - to create a feast for the filmmaker to pick from.

I want to make my own films from my own scripts based on stories I want to tell, but they take time to put together.

I have always thought if you are going to make a film, it's much better to have an original script that will play to film's strengths.

The root of any film project for me is this inner need to express something. What nurtures this root and makes it grow into a tree is the script. What makes the tree bear flowers and fruit is the directing.

And it is a folly to try to craft a novel for the screen, to write a novel with a screen contract in mind.

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 director wants is their idea of the movie to be believed in.

When you make a movie, you can only make the movie that you would want to see.

Usually, I think, every film I've made has been a book, and I've always read it.

When you're actually making the film, you're constantly battling to maintain its integrity.

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

'Hardware' came about because I had written quite a few scripts and hadn't had any luck getting them made.

I always write these movies that are far too big for any paying customer to sit down and watch from beginning to end, and so I always have this big novel that I have to adapt into a movie as I go.

I'm not put off so much by first-time directors if the script is great. If the script isn't there, I'm not there.

The dream, I think, with any project is it starts with an idea, and then somebody writes it, and the writer hopes that a director comes on and makes this piece of material visual, and both the director and writer hope that they can have actors come in and bring something to it that neither one of them expected, elevating it along the way.

Usually, if you've got a great script, everything falls into place.

I take time to write my script, if I have more scripts, I will make more movies.

Eventually, I would love to direct, but not anytime soon. I just love the storytelling aspect.

The movies sort of tell you what they want to be as you're writing them.

When you're pitching movies, sometimes you know what the idea is, but you fully don't know the dimensions of it.

When you sit down to write a film, you direct it in your head. If you are writing a scene, you are watching the scene. And maybe it's different when you are writing a novel because you are thinking of it in terms of being read. But films are only consumed one way - through the eyes and the ears.

When you're a filmmaker or a scriptwriter, you face a lot of challenges while making a film. And when you produce it, you have to put in an extra effort.

Finding one good script is a huge challenge. So I do a film whose script comes and grabs me. Once I finish that, I look forward to the next movie.

The idea of 'Roja' was with me for seven years before I made it.