Phoebe Cates Quotes

I cannot belong to a nonprofit organization because when you receive grants, you have to make such great compromises with your artistic plans.

I've talked about this a lot, but 'The Witch' took four years to finance because there were certain compromises I wouldn't make.

When you raise the budget, you make creative compromises. The higher the budget goes, the more cuts in your movie happen. When people talk about how movies are watered down, that's a direct reflection of money and budget. The less money you spend; the more risks you can take. That doesn't mean it will be successful, but at least you can try different stuff. The higher your budget is, the less you can do that.

I'm just glad that on a budget like this I don't have to make any of those hard decisions because I feel it must be a real job to direct this, as there's so much going on.

I think part of making movies is dealing with restrictions of freedom and budget. I'd rather deal with restrictions of budget. It's better to feel free within any budget.

Some day I'll make a film that critics will like. When I have money to waste.

I don't pay much attention to the press. My films always get good reviews and bad reviews. I just try to make the best film I can.

As artists, we'd all love to not be commercial - to not sell out to the full extent that we are able. But you do what you have to do to pay New York rent and continue to do what you feel strongly about.

Most filmmakers can't afford to try something out that doesn't work.

More personal films, you could make them, but your budgets would be cut down.

I feel that recording a song already compromises the magical music one can create in the mind, so the fewer people watering down this process the better.

When looking at any significant work of art, remember that a more significant one probably has had to be sacrificed.

I write R-rated action dramas, and every year that goes by, that gets to be a smaller and smaller world you have to work in. You have to think of how to get the studio excited and sell them something.

I've been lucky enough to work with some great directors, and I don't want to throw that away by doing one big horrible big budget film.

You know, every movie you make can't be great, no matter who you are.

I suppose the worst case scenario is that people will get to the point where they can't actually afford to make what they want to make creatively. The industry is collapsing.

'American Graffiti' was unpleasant because of the fact that there was no money, no time, and I was compromising myself to death.

I always think of my films within the context of where aesthetics meet economics. That's the nature of making art - not being naive about what is possible and getting what you need to tell the story you want to tell.

Independent cinema is more thoughtful, delicate. While Western blockbusters can have their own kind of delicateness, it's not delicate enough. You have to be ready to compromise to enter that field. I will do so only if it's worth it.

I do not believe that any work of art can help but be diminished by its adherence at any cost to a political program ... and not for any other reason than that there is no political program -- any more than there is a theory of tragedy -- which can encompass the complexities of real life.

A movie is never any better than the stupidest man connected with it.

If I spend time at the front of the process worrying about connecting themes, then I won't write the best songs.

I grew up in the indie world, and that's what I'm used to, but there's something really incredible about having money behind a film and having the time to do as many takes as you want.

That is one thing I really hate about working in TV - you have to shape episodes to exact time-lengths, do like 22 minutes, and it is just so against what you are making.

You can only make the best thing you can make, and if it offends purists, or angers certain critics, you can only have done your best.