John Sayles Quotes

Quotes about:

• I've always felt like I was on the margins. Once upon a time that's what independent used to mean.

  John Sayles

  Mean, Independent, Once Upon A Time

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  11 Copy quote

• I like to act. I work for scale. I don't have an acting agent. I'm in the book.

  John Sayles

  Book, Acting, Agents

  10 Copy quote

• To this day, I get rewrite offers where they say: 'We feel this script needs work with character, dialogue, plot and tone,' and when you ask what's left, they say: 'Well, the typing is very good.'

  John Sayles

  Character, Plot, Needs

  17 Copy quote

• There are very few distributors left to do off-Hollywood movies, and those distributors generally have got thousands of movies to choose from. So you're pretty lucky if you get one to even take your movie and it's pretty rare that they pay anything upfront.

  John Sayles

  Hollywood, Lucky, Pay

  Source: blogs.indiewire.com

  5 Copy quote

• The hardest thing about movie acting is that if you're playing a character who changes within the movie, you've got to do that, but you've got to do it out of sequence, because we never have gotten to shoot in sequence, and that's really, really tough.

  John Sayles

  Character, Acting, Tough

  4 Copy quote

• We just said, 'Okay, you're in the movie. Bring what you would bring for a three-day weekend and I hope you like the way you look in it because once you're on camera, that's your wardrobe.' But it worked; it worked and we were very surprised.

  John Sayles

  Weekend, Cameras, Three

  6 Copy quote

• As a screenwriter I'm often writing in genres where there have been thousands of movies; whereas when I direct movies they tend to be in between genres. They tend to have a little bit of a genre to them, but they're really about the people, and they're people we haven't met before.

  John Sayles

  Writing, People, Littles

  Source: blogs.indiewire.com

  7 Copy quote

• Assumptions allow the best in life to pass you by.

  John Sayles

  Inspirational, Assumption

  14 Copy quote

• I don't write [screenplay character] biographies beforehand. I usually go in knowing some sequences: this is where I want to start, this is where I want to end.

  John Sayles

  Writing, Character, Knowing

  4 Copy quote

• I never thought about being a writer as I grew up. A writer wasn't something I wanted to be. An outfielder was something to be. Most of what I know about style I learned from Roberto Clemente.

  John Sayles

  Style, Grew Up, Outfielders

  4 Copy quote

• There was a widespread indignation in the American media. They were saying, How can you make a movie during an election that's about politics? What are you doing? Are you trying to influence people's lives? To which my response was, Well, I hope so.

  John Sayles

  Media, People, Trying

  "Liberal America's last stand" by Xan Brooks, www.theguardian.com. July 21, 2005.

  5 Copy quote

• The hardest thing about movies is doing take 12, 13, and 14, and finding new ways to do the same lines. So the early takes are actually easier and I think there's more surprises in them.

  John Sayles

  Thinking, Lines, Way

  Source: blogs.indiewire.com

  6 Copy quote

• I always feel that there are no final victories and no final defeats. But it's true that America is in a hole right now. There are a lot of dead fish in the water.

  John Sayles

  America, Water, Victory

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  7 Copy quote

• I don't have a social agenda. I just don't choose to ignore what's in front of me.

  John Sayles

  Agendas, Social, Fronts

  4 Copy quote

• America is a very divided country now. Not only are there red states and blue states, there are now red facts and blue facts. The right-wing believe in creationism. The left in evolution.

  John Sayles

  Country, Believe, Wings

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• If you write a movie for Roger Corman, it's going to get made. You saw it almost the next day.

  John Sayles

  Writing, Next Day, Roger

  5 Copy quote

• It's a mixed crowd at the dogs - black, white, hispanic - but to Walt they all look like Jackie Gleason. Heavyset guys with big plans and polyester souls.

  John Sayles

  Dog, White, Guy

  5 Copy quote

• I figured, 'When is that ever going to happen again?'. So I basically set out the opposite way movies are made; I set out with a budget first. I said, 'What can I do well for $40,000?'.

  John Sayles

  Opposites, Way, Firsts

  4 Copy quote

• The less money and time you have, the more you haveto plan ahead and be careful about your coverage. It's like a gas:it expands or contracts depending on the size of the container.

  John Sayles

  Size, Contracts, Be Careful

  4 Copy quote

• My argument has always been that this is not an anti-Bush film, it's a pro-democracy film. And if George W.Bush comes out on the wrong side of democracy, that's his problem.

  John Sayles

  Democracy, Sides, Argument

  "Liberal America's last stand" by John Sayles, www.theguardian.com. July 21, 2005.

  9 Copy quote

• Basically, if you could get a good trailer out of the script, Roger had no objection to you making a really good movie. He liked it if you did. He liked the more cleverness and ingenuity you could bring to it. He just wasn't going to give you any more money.

  John Sayles

  Giving, Good Movie, Roger

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• When I was really young I didn't know that there was such a thing as a screenwriter. I wrote stories.

  John Sayles

  Stories, Young, Knows

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• The media in America has become so cowed and compromised.

  John Sayles

  Media, America

  " Liberal America's last stand" by Xan Brooks, www.theguardian.com. July 21, 2005.

  4 Copy quote

• Fahrenheit 9/11 took public domain information that should have been on the news every night and put it in a film that a lot of people went to see. But still Bush has never had to answer those charges.

  John Sayles

  Night, Should Have, People

  "Liberal America's last stand" by Xan Brooks, www.theguardian.com. July 21, 2005.

  7 Copy quote

• Michael Moore, whether you like him or hate him, has done something very important.

  John Sayles

  Hate, Hate Him, Important

  "Liberal America's last stand" by Xan Brooks, www.theguardian.com. July 21, 2005.

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