I think my job is to try and be as honest as I can with what is in my mind and how I feel - I think that's what you're supposed to do, if you're a good writer. So I try to do that. I know I do that. I do do that.
— Paul Thomas Anderson
I don't think the competition's so rough, within the majority of movies made in Hollywood.
I really subscribe to that old adage that you should never let the audience get ahead of you for a second. So if the film's abrasive and wrongfoots people then, y'know, that's great. But I hope it involves an audience.
As I have got older and become a father, there's less and less time for films.
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!
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.
My older sister was at the cusp of new wave, and I had older brothers from my father's first marriage who were rock 'n' roll guys, so I was exposed to a lot of popular culture.
I'm completely aware of the fact that I'm a control freak.
I don't want to be the angry guy.
I've never been a fan of whimsical or confusing storytelling.
So with 'There Will Be Blood,' I didn't even really feel like I was adapting a book. I was just desperate to find stuff to write.
I don't miss scenes at all the way that I used to miss them when I was younger making a film. It's actually quite fun to get rid of them now.
Screenwriting is like ironing. You move forward a little bit and go back and smooth things out.
No, really. Just do it. You have some kind of weird reasons that are okay.
Clinton used to like to get out of the White House a lot. He would take night trips to McDonald's, and stuff like that. I think he wanted to get out of the house.
My writing has a lot to do with who I am, and what my life is like, and my relationships to people.
I'm not really a Sundance baby, but they helped me so much I feel I have to acknowledge it.
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.
I don't think it's a director's job to peek behind the curtain too much.
You know, I'm really not that competent at describing things musically.
Film school is a complete con, because the information is there if you want it.
My dad was this sort of avant-garde guy who did all kinds of weird things. He was a true original and anybody who met him never forgot him.
I am always looking for that nuance, that moment of truth, and you can't really do that fast.
Of course, I'm no dummy.
The films that I love are very straightforward stories, like really old-fashioned stuff.
I actually enjoyed the struggles that we had trying to shape 'Blood', to get the pacing right, the rhythm of it.
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.
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.
I'll rebel against powers and principalities, all the time. Always, I will.
I write from my stomach.
Crazy is so hard to play, there's nothing you can really tell an actor.
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.
There's a lot for screenwriters to steal from songwriters, in terms of getting to the point.
To make a film, the final big collaborator that you have is the composer.
I had the standard movie geek childhood, because for as long as I can remember, all I wanted to do was make movies.
Acting is the hardest job in the entire world. By far. Harder than ditch digging.
How do I respond to criticism? Critically. I listen to all criticism critically.
I didn't have any desire I might have had 10 years ago to shoot every single word that I wrote.
I had never read Upton Sinclair. I didn't read 'The Jungle' in high school or anything like that. But it's pretty terrific writing.
It felt like the first thing, but when I first started out, I got a job adapting a book by Russell Banks called 'Rule Of The Bone.' I didn't do a very good job. I didn't really know what I was doing in general, let alone how to adapt a book.
Well I'd really love to work with Robert De Niro, because he's still the most talented actor out there.
I have a feeling, one of those gut feelings, that I'll make pretty good movies the rest of my life.
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.
