Asif Kapadia Quotes

I love doing features, but it's a very different ballgame. Sometimes I yearn for short films again, working with a small team, getting my hands on the clay.

When I'm writing a movie, it's usually pretty close to what the movie is going to be, which is just a luxury of being a writer-director.

The great thing about movies is that they're collaborative. And the worst thing is that they're collaborative.

You can write ten versions of a scene, and then, on the day, discover that something in the original scene worked. It's hard on writers. Hard on actors, hard on editors, hard on me, hard on the producers, who require patience and confidence. But I can't get to the end without going through this process.

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.

I think that, again, filmmaking is the director's medium in the end, and the best thing a producer can do is stay out of the way and support the director one hundred percent.

There's no way I see myself as a director. Direction is far too creative.

I do a film only when I feel I will be comfortable with the set-up and other members of the team.

I practice the artist's golden rule. I wouldn't want somebody telling me how to finish my painting, I'm not going to tell him how to finish his movie or how to shape his movie.

When I did 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off', I had the idea on Monday and the following Tuesday it was in budget at Paramount. I couldn't walk.

As a director, you try to find what is creative.

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

And I think one way or another it's evident to those who work with me that as a writer, a director, a friend, as somebody's there that's very anxious to get the movie made.

I think this last film I finished, 'The Butler,' is the closest I will come to as a work-for-hire.

I've produced my own films for twenty years now - it means I have to talk to less people.

I enjoy directing more when I don't have to direct myself. I like when I can just be the director.

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.

A good director's not sure when he gets on the set what he's going to do.

It's a lot of fun to be a part of films that you don't exactly know how they're going to turn out.

A film takes a lot of time, and yet not enough to share with the people you're making the movie with, I think.

I used to think that, when I was a director, I would have a very specific vision of what everything would look like, but now I am more of a camp counselor.

The filmmakers always have a great level of control.

People think if you're a movie star, you're the boss. But first of all, I'm not a movie star, I'm in a very different place. I'm not looking to do what I want - I am looking for what we can find. It's a creative process.

I produce the way I would love to be produced: In ways to create the best conditions to make your movie, but also to create a space in which the director calls the shots.

To make personal movies that you are the author of, is quite a difficult thing. It takes a lot of stamina.