Jeff Baena Quotes

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.

I started writing screenplays myself and eventually directing.

I love working with actors. I love visual things. I always intended to be a writer who directs and a director who writes.

I really have very little aspirations about acting because I think that probably the best things have come and gone. I would like to focus on writing and directing. I love writing and directing even though writing can be incredibly painful and lonely. I get great satisfaction from doing it.

When you're actually making a film, it's just people on your back all the time wanting stuff and you're constantly having to it deal with them. It's probably the most time consuming of all the arts, but I do love it because it is a great mix of visual art and music and writing.

I have no interest in writing, directing or producing.

'Rent' was a special project for me. It was my first notable screenplay job. I worked with two wonderful directors on it, starting with Spike Lee in the summer of 2001. I wrote a draft for Spike and he was really good to me.

It's a juggernaut, yeah... but I'm not phased by making movies.

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.

I wanted to write and direct movies and not be forced to adapt them from a bestselling book.

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

I just see myself as a guy who's trying to make a film or, make art.

The whole process of making movies and writing screenplays is visceral and intuitive.

I didn't really know how to make a film when I made 'Control'. I had to create my own language, just as I did when I started taking photographs. I never studied either one.

When I write a screenplay, and when I direct, I always pull lines out.

You know, I feel like my job is to write a book. Then filmmakers come and they make a movie. And they're two really different art forms.

Film, for me, has been a process of learning on the job.

I'm anxious to make another film.

Making a film is beyond exciting. It's so exciting, it's exhausting.

Directing is something I've sort of always felt like I'd like to do at one point, and I thought the best way to start it is to write something myself or with someone and I'd go from there. My own material.

I love writing. I think writing and directing go hand in hand.

As I began making my feature films, it was a great adventure. It was about constructing something I saw in my head or I had designed on storyboards and capturing that on film.

It's always been a lie that it's difficult to make films.

I'm a big fan of movies, but I'm a bigger fan of filmmaking itself. I fell in love with it when I was very young, and I have always loved to learn the craft, every aspect of it.

I try to do as much as I can, every facet of filmmaking.