Tony Gilroy Quotes

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

With directing, you've got to find something and drag it up from its inception, and I'm at the early stages of doing that again. There's something all-consuming and addictive about that.

I think the most satisfying part about filmmaking is seeing a production in full bloom. When I write, I write in isolation.

Definitely directing is the thing I like the most because this is where everything you know can be used. It's the most personal process ever. It's the most demanding one, but again, rewarding.

When I write, I imagine scenes. I write things down. I take photographs. I do some casting. I rewrite. It's a permanent making or remaking.

The way Pixar has always worked is that we think of an idea and then we make it. We don't develop lots of ideas and then pick one.

Making a movie like 'Felony' is hard work because you're really putting your own ideas on the screen. You can't hide behind some other person's script; you're saying, 'This is my brain, and I want you to know what I think'.'

I've directed things that other people have written before, and I've written things and given them to other directors. So I'm very versatile in terms of that, and I enjoy all of it.

I thought that Hollywood was just for geniuses and that directors come from three generations of directors. I was worried that I was not up to the challenge of making a movie. Then realized that all a director has to do is know what he wants to do.

For me the writing, when I'm going to direct it myself, is really just the first draft, and I don't change it very much; I only change it on average about two lines per movie.

Making a movie is a lot of problem solving.

I've never directed, but it must be humbling.

Directing is creating a whole. You're able to combine different elements and create a film that is unique and true to your vision.

I'd made these experimental films but I thought the major chore of a filmmaker was to relate to actors.

Directing is a unique endeavor where you are in charge of so many people. As a writer, it is sort of the opposite.

When you're writing, it's all up to you, and you don't have to make any compromises. And when you're directing, there's this intense pleasure you get from working with all these really talented people, and pooling the efforts towards a common goal. I like all the aspects of film-making.

It's sort of one ongoing process where writing ends and directing starts.

When you're a director, you really live whatever you do.

A filmmaker has almost the same freedom as a novelist has when he buys himself some paper.

Directing is really exciting. In the end, it's more fun to be the painter than the paint.

If you're writing a screenplay for a feature, you don't have any involvement with the casting process, the editing process, the set design, the costume design, or any of that stuff.

Making a television show is a difficult, collaborative, creative endeavor, and it really requires everybody to band together and all work together every day.

Making a movie is a network of decisions that keep multiplying as you go. You leave a trail of decisions behind you, and that's how you start to see the shape of what you've done. When you get far enough, you turn around and say, 'Ha, that's the movie.' It's only then that you find out if it's going to work or not.

It's great to have a good relationship with the directors and learn about things you do with cameras, and how you direct.

You never have any idea where your movie's going to go when you're shooting - you're in this little bubble. Everything you care about is getting the next step right: getting the script right, finding the right actors, shooting it. Then you spend half a year in a dark room editing your film, and you don't talk to anybody.