Stephen Gaghan Quotes

In any art, you don't know in advance what you want to say - it's revealed to you as you say it. That's the difference between art and illustration.

You never really know what the director has got in his mind as far as the scene visually and art direction wise, etc. Even if you do, sometimes there's a side of things that don't necessarily gel the way people intend. So there a bit of a mystical entity, film.

When a painting is finished, it's like a new born child, and the artist himself must have time for understanding. How then do you expect an amateur to understand that which the artist dos not yet comprehend.

Making a film, you're in a really dark tunnel and the only kind of illumination is the shared experience you're having with your fellow cast and director.

I was being an artist, being sensitive and technical as artists are. I'm sure Leonardo Da Vinci did that. Artists don't always feel the same as others feel about their work.

From the very first movie I ever made to the current time, there have been times between action and cut when I've sensed some kind of new dimension that I haven't been familiar with before.

Every movie I make teaches me something. That's why I keep making them.

Everybody is always trying to make the best movie they can. It's a process.

Art has been good for my soul. And it's been good for my brain. I think I'm a better painter now than I was a musician growing up. You struggle to see things and translate an image through your hands to a canvas.

Every movie has its uniqueness. You just do your best and go with it.

Art is that which comes to a man, and stands between himself and an implacable witness: the work.

I don't want real life necessarily to be seen only as a context to heighten the deepness my work.

Art is the fatal net which catches these strange moments on the wing like mysterious butterflies, fleeing the innocence and distraction of common men.

If the audience knew what they wanted then they wouldn't be the audience, they would be the artist.

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

The 'Station to Station' film has been fascinating to create. It feels as though it made itself in a way, and after awhile, the film told us what it needed and began to sculpt itself.

It's not that there aren't people who care creatively in the world of television, but there's always a bit more time in making a movie. I always feel films are more of a creative journey.

I like to be in a different place when I make a movie so that I can't really focus on anything else, and that is your world.

Most artists don't understand what they do, and I don't think we have to. Other people do that better - they understand what I do better than I do!

It's the director's job to piece together my performance, his interpretation of my takes, each take, and string them together and make a statement. I'm red paint on a canvas for a painter.

The most important thing as a filmmaker, the hardest journey you'll have, is to find your point of view.

When you make a piece, one of the interesting things is hearing what other people think about it.

I can't just go into the studio with one idea and be all in on that, 100 percent. It takes me a while to arrive at something that feels like it's finished.

I always feel that my films ought to teach me something about life.

I really only put stuff out when I have something to say and I feel like I've got a direction and I've got an idea - and that can even take two, two-and-a-half years to flesh out.