Dan Trachtenberg Quotes

When I was a kid, I thought movie stars were women and men who were in these great films that we still look at now. But I don't think there are too many films coming out these days that we're going to look at in the future and say, 'This is one of the great ones.'

I firmly believe that emotions are universal, and I know that when they connect with the audience, it works. There is no such thing as an entertaining or a serious film; there are good films and bad films. Good films will always find a vast audience.

Movies I liked growing up were like Francis Ford Coppolla movies and Scorsese movies.

I love 'The Godfather' and 'Casablanca' - great stories, acted well, made well.

My writing has always been what you call 'narrative fiction' in the sense that it's got very strong plots and twists at the end.

I think that it's fun to get the script and open it like a Christmas present. That's 'Alcatraz' or anything that I'm working on. If the groundwork has been laid too much, the surprises aren't there.

I don't really care where movies come from as long as they're worth making.

What I keep searching for in movies, more and more, is the right gravity.

I believe that if the story is fleshed out and the characters more believable, the reader is more likely to take the journey with them. In addition, the plot can be more complex. My characters are very real to me, and I want each of my characters to be different.

But, you know there's a lot of westerns - not that they were bad - it's just that they can be remade because they're great stories that aren't indelible in an audience's mind when it comes to both the cast and the story.

My favorite films are the ones that I walk away from and I know I saw a story.

The whole format of 'Game of Thrones' is that you just don't know what to expect.

If the movie's well made and it's about things that count, people will ultimately see the depth in it.

I like a book better if I can't predict what's going to happen.

One thing George R. R. Martin does is surprising things to main characters. But he says so himself.

The only thing approaching art in a movie is the script.

As far as writing, I like watching bad movies. Nothing stops me in my tracks more than watching a great film like 'The Godfather' or 'Dog Day Afternoon' or 'The Graduate.' You watch one of those, and you never want to write again. Whereas with bad movies, it makes you think, If that counts, I certainly could write.

Hallmark makes beautiful films that feel as if they should be watched in a theater. The Hall family knows the power of stories, and they give us unforgettable movies with heart and depth and the resonance of classics.

One of the things I admire about longer stories is the way writers can work with dead time and slower, more idle moments - not only can they feel expansive, they feel lived-in; the unhurried pacing often makes the endings even more resonant and surprising for me.

I like stories that grow, that have unpredictable layers. As opposed to Hollywood movies that start out with a lot of shock and noise and peter out into an unconvincing cliche.

Hawks is great, 'The Treasure of Sierra Madre,' 'The Big Sleep'... He could do the Salt-of-the-Earth very well. He was a very smooth director; a very good film architect in terms of his storytelling.

My mum raised me on 'On the Waterfront,' 'Gone with the Wind' and 'Rear Window.'

I like 'Citizen Kane,' I like 'The Godfather,' all the ones that everyone should see, whether you're an actor or not.

Films like 'The Godfather,' 'The Exorcist,' 'Klute,' 'Chinatown,' 'Network,' and 'The Parallax View': They were drawn from the genre tradition, but they dressed down the stylistic telling of those traditions and genres.

When I saw 'Breakfast at Tiffany's,' and Audrey Hepburn was standing in front of Tiffany's in this Givenchy dress, or when I saw 'All About Eve,' I thought that period was just fabulous. I mean, who would not want to walk down the stairs with their hands in their pockets, and say, 'Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy ride.'