Paul Thomas Anderson Quotes

Quotes about:

• Screenwriting is like ironing. You move forward a little bit and go back and smooth things out.

  Paul Thomas Anderson

  Moving, Writing, Littles

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

  50 Copy quote

• I guess what I like in my movies is where you see a character change by maybe two degrees as opposed to the traditional movie change of ninety degrees. I guess that always feels false to me in movies because that doesn't truly happen. Around me, at least in the life I live, I guess I don't see people change ninety or a hundred degrees. I see them change in very small increments. I think it's just a monitor I might have on myself as a writer to not make any false scenes.

  Paul Thomas Anderson

  Character, Thinking, Two

  24 Copy quote

• I am always looking for that nuance, that moment of truth, and you can't really do that fast.

  Paul Thomas Anderson

  Nuance, Moments, That Moment

  15 Copy quote

• It's a gamble you take, the risk of alienating an audience. But there's a theory - sometimes it's better to confuse them for five minutes than let them get ahead of you for 10 seconds.

  Paul Thomas Anderson

  Risk, Sometimes, Minutes

  16 Copy quote

• You write who you are. But you also cheat, and youwrite what you want to be. It's embarrasing to be the guy who madethe movie, knowing you're not exactly who you want to be.

  Paul Thomas Anderson

  Writing, Knowing, Guy

  13 Copy quote

• I'll rebel against powers and principalities, all the time. Always, I will.

  Paul Thomas Anderson

  Uprising, Rebel

  19 Copy quote

• How do I respond to criticism? Critically. I listen to all criticism critically.

  Paul Thomas Anderson

  Criticism

  5 Copy quote

• My filmmaking education consisted of finding out what filmmakers I liked were watching, then seeing those films. I learned the technical stuff from books and magazines, and with the new technology you can watch entire movies accompanied by audio commentary from the director. You can learn more from John Sturges' audio track on the 'Bad Day at Black Rock' laserdisc than you can in 20 years of film school. Film school is a complete con, because the information is there if you want it.

  Paul Thomas Anderson

  Book, School, Bad Day

  20 Copy quote

• I have a feeling, one of those gut feelings, that I'll make pretty good movies the rest of my life.

  Paul Thomas Anderson

  Feelings, Good Movie, Gut Feelings

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

  8 Copy quote

• My writing has a lot to do with who I am, and what my life is like, and my relationships to people.

  Paul Thomas Anderson

  Writing, Who I Am, People

  15 Copy quote

• We’re all children of Kubrick, aren’t we? Is there anything you can do that he hasn’t done?

  Paul Thomas Anderson

  Children, Done, Can Do

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

  4 Copy quote

• But I'd be lying if I didn't say that every time you go to make a film, you're desperate to either do it better than you did it last time or to not repeat yourself.

  Paul Thomas Anderson

  Lying, Lasts, Film

  "Paul Thomas Anderson strikes cinematic oil". www.today.com. January 3, 2008.

  10 Copy quote

• If you figure a way to live without serving a master, any master, then let the rest of us know, will you? For you'd be the first person in the history of the world.

  Paul Thomas Anderson

  Way To Live, World, Firsts

  "The Master". www.imdb.com. 2012.

  10 Copy quote

• I always had a dream about trying to make a movie that had no dialogue in it, that was just music and pictures. I still haven't done it yet, but I tried to get close in the beginning.

  Paul Thomas Anderson

  Dream, Trying, Done

  10 Copy quote

• To make a film, the final big collaborator that you have is the composer.

  Paul Thomas Anderson

  Finals, Film, Bigs

  7 Copy quote

• I'm completely aware of the fact that I'm a control freak.

  Paul Thomas Anderson

  Facts, Freak, Control Freak

  11 Copy quote

• I don't get a sense of American pride. I just get a sense that everyone is here, battling the same thing - that around the world everybody's after the same thing, just some minor piece of happiness each day.

  Paul Thomas Anderson

  Pride, Around The World, Pieces

  "The Search for Purpose in the Films of Paul Thomas Anderson". thefilmstage.com. March 20, 2017.

  8 Copy quote

• No matter how many times you do it, you don't get used to the sadness - for me at least - of coming to the end of a film.

  Paul Thomas Anderson

  Sadness, Matter, Film

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

  6 Copy quote

• There’s a lot for screenwriters to steal from songwriters, in terms of getting to the point.

  Paul Thomas Anderson

  Stealing, Term, Songwriters

  "Mann Crazy". Interview with Chris Willman, ew.com. January 7, 2000.

  12 Copy quote

• I remember being taught in school that you would underline things that you liked. I remember just underlining everything as a kid, thinking, 'This has all gotta be important!' I would just underline the whole thing!

  Paul Thomas Anderson

  School, Kids, Thinking

  Interview with Josh Modell, www.avclub.com. January 2, 2008.

  10 Copy quote

• I've never been a fan of whimsical or confusing storytelling.

  Paul Thomas Anderson

  Confusing, Fans, Storytelling

  "Tell the story! Tell the story!" by Ed Pilkington, www.theguardian.com. January 4, 2008.

  9 Copy quote

• You have to be a brat in order to carve out your parameters, and you have to be a monster to anyone who gets in your way. But sometimes it's difficult to know when that's necessary and when you're just being a baby, throwing your rattle from the cage.

  Paul Thomas Anderson

  Baby, Order, Monsters

  "I can be a real arrogant brat" by Xan Brooks, www.theguardian.com. January 27, 2003.

  9 Copy quote

• Film school is a complete con, because the information is there if you want it.

  Paul Thomas Anderson

  School, Want, Information

  "Paul Thomas Anderson Says You'll Learn More from This Commentary Track Than in 20 Years of Film School" by Alison Nastasi, www.movies.com. December 18, 2012.

  13 Copy quote

• The films that I love are very straightforward stories, like really old-fashioned stuff.

  Paul Thomas Anderson

  Stories, Stuff, Film

  "Tell the story! Tell the story!" by Ed Pilkington, www.theguardian.com. January 4, 2008.

  4 Copy quote

• It's so hard to do anything that doesn't owe some kind of debt to what Stanley Kubrick did with music in movies. Inevitably, you're going to end up doing something that he's probably already done before. It always seem like we're falling behind whatever he came up with. "Singin' in the Rain" (1952) in "A Clockwork Orange" (1971) - that was the first time I became so aware of music in movies. So no matter how hard you try to do something new, you're always following behind.

  Paul Thomas Anderson

  Rain, Fall, Orange

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

  4 Copy quote

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