Charlie Kaufman Quotes

I never really understood how movies were made, because it was such a technical accomplishment.

My dad told me, 'Your movie's never as good as the dailies and never as bad as the rough cut.

You see the movie with the music and the editing and all the parts that you weren't there for when it was being filmed, and you really appreciate all the names that are scrolling by. You realize that you accomplished so much.

I loved being behind the scenes and finding out how they make movies.

It's such a drag to make a movie.

If you really spend time with movies, it's three years of your life from beginning to end. I started out planting the seed with 'Monster's Ball' about independent cinema and raising money and that whole thing as a producer, and then it becomes easier for me.

I love making movies and hope to write my own screenplay someday and do some producing and be behind-the-scenes as well.

We make a lot of movies, and we make them fast.

The first movie I produced was a movie that Joel Schumacher wrote and directed called 'Amateur Night at the Dixie Bar and Grill.'

With the film, you have a bunch of executive producers, directors, writers, scripts. There's, management, lighting, the union and etc. There are so many components a part of that game, so naturally it isn't my world.

I became really aware that when you're making a movie, you're making it three times. You're making it when you're writing it. You're making it when you're shooting it. And then you're remaking it again when you're editing it.

Producing is making films without having to work sometimes. It's still making films, but it's a different job. When you're the director, you kinda do all the work. I'm actually going tonight to check the prints of my movie even though the premiere's tomorrow night.

I've lived through the shooting of movie, the editing and every other process along the way, so it's not for me to really judge it. I'll probably look at it again five years from now to get a fresh feel for it.

I've grown up around cinema. Michael Kamen was a very, very close friend of mine, sort of my godfather. So I know how much work goes into it. You have to know what you're doing.

Inherently, making a movie is tough because there's so much anticipation when it happens - even if everything goes well.

With me, I probably work a lot more than people assume I do, but people don't realize how much work goes into writing and producing and making a movie.

When you work on a movie, especially an independent movie, it's a lot of work to make it! It's not just our job as actors - so many people are working so hard, and even the littlest movie takes a lot of work.

I don't get it when you get so much openness about the way movies are made, and the special effects and the behind-the-scenes stuff and all of that. I can't help but feel like this reduces it a little bit.

When you think of a movie, most people imagine a two hour finished, polished product. But to get to that two hour product, it can take hundreds or thousands of people many months of full time work.

So I've had really great assistant directors for my last seven movies.

If I heard somebody else say, 'I worked on a movie for five years', I'd be like, 'What? How could it take that long? What were you doing?'

I spent a long time working in the movies to figure out that kind of acting and also how to write and produce for the screen.

A producer is always behind the scenes, even more in the movies - nobody sees you. I didn't even meet most of the actors. When I worked on 'Top Gun,' I never met Tom Cruise. You were always in the background.

Making a film, setting it up and getting it cast and getting it together, is not an easy thing.

I love watching Hollywood movies - I just don't know if I'd be happy doing a 'Jurassic Park.'