Kenneth Lonergan Quotes

I don't want to make a half-assed film. It's not my area of expertise.

I'm not afraid to delay the schedule to make sure that this is the film that I want, that this is the best that I can do at that point.

Film is a collaborative process, absolutely, but I am a control freak.

But I did on projects that I produced, that I directed, that I acted in because it was important. I want to be a filmmaker. I don't want to be an actor who directs, I want to be a director. I want to be a filmmaker. So that's a big difference.

It's interesting going between small parts and then bigger roles where you carry the film. If the writing is good, and if the people involved have integrity, then you'll do it, even if it's only five minutes on screen.

The most important thing for Quentin and the most important thing for me is to make the best film possible.

One of the great joys of being able to write something you can make, if you get certain actors you want and love, you're kind of buying yourself a front row seat to watch them work.

A film goes through so many hands, that by the time it's done, it might not resemble what you thought you were making.

We didn't care if we were well-liked as long as the movies were good. We served the movie - that was our master at Miramax. In our second incarnation, the movie is still the master but we're getting the same results in more subtle ways.

I haven't been a director-for-hire for any project. I work with people who appreciate that, understand that, and want to work that way.

I want to make movies that I would want to watch as a fan.

Nobody wants to make something that displeases people, but once you make a film, that's out of your control and you can't think about that. You just have to follow your head and make sure that you're satisfied by putting down what you intended.

I would love to be able to get behind the camera and direct actors. I think that would be a lot of fun.

Animation, by necessity, is a team sport, and the fewer people with input into my work, the better I like it.

There are a lot of things going into making a movie. So many things can go wrong. So many people that need to show up and bring their "A" game. If one thing is out of place, the whole movie can fall apart.

To me, the producing falls into the same as acting. It requires so much time out of your life, and I take it very personally, I realize, so if I do something, it just has to be something I love and I don't want anyone else to do.

Artists are not your art monkeys. They are your collaborators. They should be given all due consideration to follow their journey.

It's true that I don't think I'd be a good director. If I were a director, I'd try to hire the best people I could and then leave them alone. I don't know much about cameras or lighting, so I'd make sure that I had a really good cameraman who understood lenses and lighting, and I say to him, "This is the scene we have to shoot and this is what I think it should be, you go do it." Same with actors. But really, very good directors who know everything do basically the same thing. They hire you and then they leave you alone.

[Martin] Scorsese says one of the great things he loves about it is how Mark can't get the right shot and he's killing people because he can't get the right shot. It's an example of what film-makers are like.

Making movies has not only been an incredibly collaborative process but there's three big parts: pre-production, shooting itself and then post-production, which leads into marketing. And if you're passionate about the movie and you believe in it, and it would make sense that you are having done it, then you want to get out and promote it. It makes it a lot easier when the film is good and people are enjoying it.

I think, as the writer, you're always going to mourn something [left out of a film]. But you also just want to know there's a good reason for it being left out. On the whole, you want to give something to somebody creative. The worst thing you can do is say, "Here, be creative, but do it like I want you to do it." I was always very mindful of that.

I don't want to take photographs that I won't recognize as myself, and myself isn't necessarily just blankly staring at the lens.

When you direct is the only time you get to have the world exactly how you want it. My movies are very close to what I set out to do. And I'm super-opinionated about what I do and don't like.

One of the things you have to understand with The Room, I never approached a studio to produce, because I know no one in Hollywood will produce this. I came to Hollywood and I said "I will produce this movie the way I want it."

For us, being a label, we took out the whole aspect of the business that goes into sifting through people who don't care, who don't get what you're trying to do. We can just hire and work with people who get it - the people who understand what this project is about. When you're on a label, you're just hoping somebody will stick their neck out and work for you. Most bands are just like, "I hope they do it. I hope they promote it." But being a label, we know exactly what's happening.