Sean Penn Quotes

It's amazing how everyone has their different ways of working. I like hearing about that process, reading about it. I have so much appreciation for movies because I understand how hard it is to make one. There is always something I gain from watching a movie, whether it's a silly romantic comedy or an art film.

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

When you shoot a movie, the camera is always taking, taking, taking and not giving anything back.

I feel like I'm a filmmaker; I don't feel I need to yell action and cut.

There are only so many movies you can direct. And yet there are movies that I want to make sure make it to the screen in as honest a way as possible.

I want to get into producing and writing more for myself - setting up my own films and seeing what kind of personal touch I can put on movies, as opposed to just being in them.

Anyone who has ever been privileged to direct a film also knows that, although it can be like trying to write 'War and Peace' in a bumper car in an amusement park, when you finally get it right, there are not many joys in life that can equal the feeling.

I like to produce my own movies.

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.

Once you turn on the camera, making a movie is making a movie. I don't care if it's $9 million dollars or $50 million dollars. You have bigger toys, bigger set, actors who are better paid, but once you turn on the camera, it's director and performance, and I don't find a big difference.

I don't make projects; I make films.

I don't know anything about directing, but if you love actors, know your story and hire a great company, then anyone can direct a film.

I love working with actors. I love visual things. I always intended to be a writer who directs and a director who writes.

Making a movie is casting a spell.

As a result of my life on the road and the increasing number of rainy afternoons in cinemas, I began to get the idea that I might write a film.

Some directors don't get involved in the cinematography and are just about story, but I'm definitely more tactile than that in terms of my involvement in the minutiae.

I have stories that I'd like to maybe one day consider directing, but you need a lot of time to write and put it together.

The whole process of making movies and writing screenplays is visceral and intuitive.

All the director wants is their idea of the movie to be believed in.

In a movie, you're raw material, just a hue of some color and the director makes the painting.

When you're working on a movie you always hope that people will go for it and enjoy what you're doing.

You don't make a movie, the movie makes you.

I'm in awe of directors like the Coen brothers who can shoot their script and edit it, and that's the movie. They're not discovering the movie in postproduction. They're editing the script they shot.

I knew that I'd end up directing because I'm so hands-on with my films.

To me, the director is the most important, rather than the story.