I really feel like if they'd have let me just pace in the back of the classroom while the teacher was talking, I'd have done much better. I have to move. But you know, that's disruptive for the class, and as a result, there was a ripple effect of having to sit still that found its way into every aspect of my life.
— Ryan Gosling
Muscles. We're talking about muscles? They're like pets, basically, and they're not worth it. They're just not worth it. You have to feed them all the time and take care of them, and if you don't, they just go away. They run away.
I feel like I'm always trying to make a movie about the Two Faced Man in some way.
I've been thinking about a bank robbery my whole life.
Cars can have a hypnotic effect. You can get in a car and get out and not really remember the trip.
Now that I'm an actor and I have movies, press, I have more occasions to wear suits. I like wearing suits.
Most movies, you have to try and forget you're making a movie, because there are trailers and booms and lights and marks, and it's everywhere.
They say never meet your heroes. But the addendum to that is 'unless they're Harrison Ford.'
I had to keep reminding myself in 'Blue Valentine' that I was actually making a film.
You feel good if you've done hard work. You sleep better. You get stuck in your head if you have too much time to think.
It's not like I set out to be 'the indie guy.'
Falling in love is a narcissistic endeavor. You play the role of lover, and you find someone to act it out on.
I read a lot of script. In my opinion, most of them aren't good or aren't about people.
Any time you stick your neck out in high school, there's someone right there to chop your head off.
You can only be yourself, and it sounds cheesy, but when it comes to filmmaking, there's really nowhere to hide.
Do you remember when Fabio got hit in the face with a pigeon on the roller coaster, and it broke his nose? Sometimes I feel like I'm the pigeon, and the Internet is Fabio's face. Actually, I don't know if I'm the pigeon, or I'm Fabio's face. Depends on the day, I guess.
'The Nice Guys' fulfilled my 1970s fantasy.
I'm just sort of making it up as I go along.
I feel like one of the things that I watched that I felt was really helpful in some way but, more than anything, is worth mentioning was this film 'Boogie Man.' It's a documentary about Lee Atwater.
When I was a kid, I saw 'Rambo First Blood', and the next day, I took knives to school and threw them at everybody. So I was definitely influenced by violent films before 'Drive.'
There's something messed up with my brain.
I guess there's something about you don't know why you're attracted to a character, but you're attracted to them enough to want to - it's like when a song comes on, and you feel like dancing. You don't know why; you just want to dance. It's hard to analyze that feeling, and if you do, you get far away from it.
I turned 30, and everyone told me I would feel different, and I didn't.
What a lot of people don't understand about the NC-17, which I didn't understand, is that you can't show it in major theater chains - and you can't even air spots for your film on television. It really stigmatizes the movie.
It's Shane Black. He's a world unto himself. His world is so fun and crazy.
I think 'Believer' and 'Leland' were such great things to have been a part of, and I learned a lot.
When my films don't do well, I'm hurt and surprised. It's discouraging.
My mom was really cool.
Anybody could write a bad script, and I'm one of them, you know?
I left Canada to come to Hollywood to make movies.
I'm not very good at knowing what people want. I don't have that talent. The best I can do is make films that resonate with me and see what happens.
You learn from all directors, all these guys.
This is going to sound ridiculous, but I remember watching 'Boyz n the Hood,' and there is a scene where Cuba Gooding, Jr. gets pressed against a car by a police officer, and he starts crying because it's so humiliating. I remember thinking in that moment that I could totally identify with him, and I'm a little white kid from Canada.
I grew up on Mel Brooks films. That was film to me until I got a little bit older and realised there were other kinds of movies.
When I was a kid, I was kind of obsessed with that movie 'Dick Tracy.' Burger King had all this 'Dick Tracy' stuff, and I collected all of it, and I had the posters, and I watched it on a loop.
I'm Canadian, and so American politics aren't really in my wheelhouse.
I was highly influenced by violence.
When you drive, you can kind of put your identity aside in the passenger's seat because you're not being watched, and you can just be the watcher.
Show me a man who wouldn't give it all up for Emma Stone, and I'll show you a liar.
I'd like to see some Broadway shows at some point in time.
I was very impressed by Walt Disney and the idea that you could have a dream and you could realize it to the point where people could walk around within it... It still resonates with me. I wanted to be somebody who believed in their ideas that much.
I don't really have that much angst to get rid of.
I make a mean tuna fish sandwich.
I really believe my films are going to be successful, that I'm making 'The Blair Witch Project' - something that will transcend expectations and resonate with people.
I think the 'Law of Attraction' comes from a rich, white, privileged perspective.
You can't geek out with a lot of people about Linda Manz.
It's not easy to leave your hometown and your family and your support system and come out to Los Angeles to - to pursue a dream where the odds are not in your favor.
You can tell so much about somebody by the films they make, and it's only while I approach this do I now realize how much of the filmmaker you can see in their films.
I got a Twitter because some guy was pretending to be me.
That's the power of film. If it's good, it can somehow make you feel connected to even the farthest thing from your own experience.
