Alexander Payne Quotes

Sometimes you feel you're making something really special and when it comes out you might still feel that way but for some reason it doesn't get the audience. So many things have to come together to get a creatively successful and financially successful film.

I feel like I've finally made it as an actor. I've been doing this for years and you don't always make a movie that everybody likes.

As long as people want to see me in movies, and as long as I find it interesting, I'll keep working.

It's true, I'm the youngest, highest-grossing French director. I have a few records, but no one knows or simply doesn't care. That's good, because I like that. Ultimately, I want to keep working, making a lot of movies, and get better at it. It's about finding great scripts and bringing them to life.

I would do 'John Carter' again tomorrow. I'm very proud of 'John Carter.' Box office doesn't validate me as a person, or as an actor.

Look: You're not gonna become a millionaire doing this, but that was never the point. And I think a lot of people in the indie film business kind of took their eye off of that.

It's not about an opening weekend. It's about a career, building a set of films you're proud of. Period.

Most of the films I've done haven't done particularly well. I'm surprised I'm continuing to work.

I don't see many explosions or ten-car crashes in the course of my life, so I don't put them into my movies. I would love to live in a society where 'My Dinner with Andre' made $100,000,000. Then I would be in the mainstream. I could do that stuff easier than I could do 'Meatballs.'

I've been lucky in my career. I've worked with some of the greatest filmmakers and actors around. I'm so proud of some of my work.

In any film business, if you're trying to get your next film made, you would never say, 'Oh, my last film was a cult film.' I'd say, 'Oh, great, well I hope this one isn't!' I always say to Johnny Knoxville, 'How do you do it? You sort of do the same thing we did, except you made millions, and I made hundreds.'

I've worked in the film business for 45 years, and I want to keep on growing as a filmmaker. I want to see my visual life grow and be increasingly effective in this world.

I made surf movies for 20 years, exclusively. And it's incredible, and I feel blessed to be able to do that and have that long of a run.

I think 'Sound of My Voice' was the first film where suddenly I could point to something I had done that I was proud of and say, 'Look at this piece of work.' And that's probably what led to 'Fruitvale Station,' which was the real break.

When a filmmaker tries to make a good film and if he gets success in that then definitely it's a nice feeling.

You don't necessarily have to have your movie made to have success.

I have seen this whole process of films releasing, becoming hits or flops, for too long now to expect things to do well. If I expect a film to do well, then it is for somebody else's sake, not for my own. I do my work, and if you feel that my work is improving from film to film, then I have done my part of the job.

I would want to believe that every film I do turns out to be the turning point of my career.

Consequently, it's so gratifying to then make a picture that's successful and gives you leverage to have better circumstances than you've ever had, before the next time out.

I've really only had one (dream) since I got into this business at 13 years old, which was to be in this business forever. Once I did my first television commercial, I caught that itch and that bug. I want to be a part of pieces of art - as far as cinema is concerned - that people will want to see for generations to come. That's my dream.

The true marker of success is when the creative minds behind a film can sit down and feel that they have succeeded in the mission they set out to accomplish - and that is to make good cinema. If we feel that we have achieved that as a team, then we have all been successful.

I can make films. And some of them come out good, and some of them come out better, and some of them come out worse. But I've been very lucky over the years to be able to sustain the length of career that I've had.

The whole idea is just to continue to make movies that I enjoy playing and that audiences are going to enjoy me in... just to put out quality on a lot of different levels.

The prime motivation in making almost any film is success, because film is the art form of the 20th century.

You can do crap work in a big movie, and it does good things. You can do great work in a movie no one sees, it does nothing. That's the way it goes.