Passion for Storytelling Quotes

Write what will stop your breath if you don’t write.

When you're a writer, you have to write these stories, even if you don't get paid

Oh, man, you won't hear me talking about the drudgery of making movies. I don't buy any of that. All those guys who made 'The Revenant,' they loved it. They wanted to make a film, and they were the happiest people around to be doing so.

Do I like to write? Why? About what? Will I give up and say, "Living and feeding a man's insatiable guts and begetting children occupies my whole life. Don't have time to write"?

I don't love big films for the sake of big films. It's not been a career drive to get to that point.

I think directing is part play, part work, not just all work, because I think you always have to play. I think that's ultimately why I got into making movies, is because I love to play.

Some people make movies for money or glory and will take any subject people offer them. But I cannot do that. I need to feel the story and make it mine.

Why do you write?' Because I love words and stories so much. Because I would be grief stricken every day of my life if I couldn't write. Because I'm obsessed and compelled. Because I'd be utterly useless at anything else.

When you get to work with great people like on our movie, Blake and Ellen Burstyn and Harrison and Kathy Baker, Amanda Crew, the first minute or two it's like, 'Oh my God, I'm working with you,or Harrison,' people you've admired for so long, after like five minutes you realize we're all trying to do the same thing, we all have a passion for telling good stories and we're going to try to make the story the best possible.

I wake up so full of life and feeling so alive and so full of joy when I get to go to a set and tell a story. I just - I couldn't imagine not having that, and what a gift it's been in my life.

You should always make it like it's your last film. That's my personal belief. Every filmmaker is going to have another belief... That's the only way I know to try to make a film that might be good. You got to take it real seriously like it's your last thing.

Before 'Life of Pi,' I wanted to do economics. And now, I realize how bad a mistake that would have been. I just can't see it as my cup of tea anymore.

I want to be around people that are just as enthusiastic about the process and storytelling as I am.

I've worked with a lot of people who have a lot of integrity towards cinema.

I'd meet a new filmmaker that I'd always loved, and I'd think, "Great! I'm in the right place." It's a weird way to look at it, but I don't care as long as I'm able to make stuff that I want to make.

Ninety-five per cent of films are born of frustration, of self despair, of ambition for survival, for money, for fattening bank accounts. Five per cent, maybe less, are made because a man has an idea, an idea which he must express.

When I make a movie, I just make the movie. I don't think about the success of it. If it becomes successful, that's an amazing treat. If it doesn't, you had a great time making it and you learned from it, and then you make a new thing.

The opportunity to be able to tell stories to a massive audience is really incredible and this job couldn't be more satisfying. So, any drawbacks I think are worth it if you really enjoy the work. I hope to be doing this until I die.

You don't try any less hard on the ones that don't. I've gotten lucky to work with some amazingly talented people that have helped the ones that have worked work. I think you just have to keep doing the stories you love and the characters that you love and are drawn to.

You have to be a pretty miserable person to not enjoy making movies. It's something I always dreamed about. I do not take it for granted.

It's probably not an accident that the films that I care about happen to be about issues that matter to me, stories that I want to tell. If you're going to spend two years of your life on something it has to matter to you, you have to be passionate about it.