Lauren Shuler Donner Quotes

The real drawback when you write with a partner is that where you want it to go and where they want it to go is similar, but not exactly lined up, and that's where it's going to lead you into trouble.

There comes a point with any collaboration like that where you start having other interests creatively. I was moving in one direction musically, and as a guitar player, Mark wanted to move in another direction. That was essentially the reason we broke up.

I have a problem with writer/directors, personal. I can't work well with both of them on the set, if both of them are giving instructions. Writers tend to be in love with what they wrote. You can't always translate the words into the meaning, sometimes the meaning is better served without the words, difficult to make a writer to try to understand that. It gets, sometimes, tense.

I see what you mean, but I do not think what you think.

When you have an author and an auteur, it's a difficult and challenging relationship.

My father, we bumped heads when I was younger, much younger... I had different ideas that I shared with him. He didn't like them as much. He gets upset or whatever. I guess I had a strong opinion from when I was a little boy.

Working together was a bit of a disaster. I'd tell him his ideas were cr*p and he'd say the same about mine.

Some men don't gel when it comes to work - you have different work ethics, different opinions, different points of views, different methods of filmmaking - and we didn't gel.

I have been criticized rather strenuously by painters and sculptors for not incorporating their work in our buildings.

Sure, I've met with people I don't agree with.

So, we come out to Los Angeles. And we met with every network. We met with show runners, directors, writers, everything. And what we had an idea for, they didn't like. And what they had an idea for, we didn't like. So, we went home.

Disharmony is natural in any band.

There's no such thing as an actor giving positive criticism to a director. The minute you say 'Don't you think it would look nicer...', that director's going to hate your guts. Particularly if it's a good idea.

The worst thing for an actor is a director that gets on your nerves and says things that actually confuse you.

There's no common taste in this world.

When I started 'Hudson Hawk,' I realized I was dealing with a strong-willed producer, a strong-willed actor, and, at times, a strong-willed studio, and I was the junior partner in all of this - the guy who hadn't proven anything in terms of box-office success.

It's very tough when two creative people are together.

My own personal taste in films as a member of the audience was not completely in line with films I was doing.

'Strictly Sinatra' became a compromise between me and the producers, and neither of us liked the results much.

The struggle of making a film for any studio is the fact that the producers and the studio have an idea of what the movie should be, but that is especially the case when the director is being replaced three weeks before principal photography. The challenge for me was to make sure that was my version of 'The Wolfman.' And I've done that. I think.

Some of the attitudes of Barney are certainly attitudes I share, but not all.

You make one solo album, and some people swear you're about to leave the band or there are creative differences.

Many times I felt like I'd do better than what the director did, but some of them got a little discouraged because they didn't have full charge of making the film, and sometimes there'd be battles of egos.

Also, differences of opinion can be creatively stimulating as well as frustrating.

I disagree that I'm on the wrong side. I'm just not on your side.