Martin Short Quotes

You talk about what a director, he was smart. He said, Turn the camera on!

There is an isolated experience to being a director. It's very communal because there's a crew, but it's only you. You're the one on the hook.

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

You can have a wonderful time doing a movie and believe in it completely, and then you see the final product, and it doesn't look anything like what you thought it was going to.

My responsibility is to make a film and find my dramatic language; I don't have any political or social responsibility.

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 wanted to write and direct movies and not be forced to adapt them from a bestselling book.

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

There's a whole system in Hollywood where the director never speaks to the studio, but I like to engage them in a discussion. I listen.

Nobody ever starts out to make a mediocre, commercial film. You always think it's going to be something. And then, once you're done with your shooting, you have no control. You're just done, as an actor.

I had never thought of myself as a director and found out that I was not. I am a writer who was able to direct the films that I write.

I was never one of those people who thought, 'What I really want to do is direct.' It never occurred to me.

I will work with a director who has good material because at the end of the day, that's what counts.

I have no control over a film. I don't know what will be left on the cutting floor.

I usually do about five cuts as a director. I haven't ever directed a film where I haven't made five passes through the movie, and that takes a long time.

Peter Chelsom and Edgar Wright are totally different directors and worlds apart, but both really accomplished directors who are certain of how they want to make a film.

I think, at the end of the day, filmmaking is a team, but eventually there's got to be a captain.

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.

A director shouldn't get in the way of the movie, the story should.

No one ever sets out to make a bad movie. There's almost always incredible amount of passion and work put behind any given project. You just have to give it everything you got, and sometimes it works out, and a lot of the times it doesn't.

Every film requires a different process. You learn about these particular actors and the particular chemistry between these actors. Recognizing when you don't need to shoot a scene because it's going to be cut anyway.

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.

A movie is like a city. There's, like, 150 people working, and it's all because of something that came out of your head.

Essentially, it is the director who is the creative head of a film. The final authority on all decisions lies with the director. That is how it should be. And then other team members can give their creative inputs.