Cinema Quotes by Alexander Payne

The best cinema is about ethics.

— Alexander Payne

I'm hoping one day I can make one really good film.

— Alexander Payne

What is filmmaking but groping in the dark?

— Alexander Payne

I want all of my films to belong to me.

— Alexander Payne

Each one of my movies becomes easier to get off the ground.

— Alexander Payne

I'm attracted to short screenplays. Nobody really wants a film to be over two hours, or at least I don't.

— Alexander Payne

I like to think of film-making not just as an act of personal self-aggrandisement but rather as an act of public service.

— Alexander Payne

In the moment of making films, I want to share my observations of life, not of other films.

— Alexander Payne

The most heinous shift in American films is that they reinforce good things like 'couples' and 'relationships.'

— Alexander Payne

I think if you watch most of my films with the sound off, you could still tell what's going on.

— Alexander Payne

The actors are the greatest executors of tone in a film. They're the most important cinematic component.

— Alexander Payne

There is an audience out there for literate films - slower, more observant, more human films, and they deserve to be made.

— Alexander Payne

I don't want all of American cinema to be big cartoons that are just made to be digested by the entire world.

— Alexander Payne

I get asked, 'How can you have such failures in your films?' Well, what else is life about? There's some sense of…

— Alexander Payne

I'm so not interested in producing, other than doing my own work, producing my own films. I only do it as favors,…

— Alexander Payne

But it's just that the whole country is making generally lousy films these days and has been for quite a while. That's…

— Alexander Payne

Hollywood films have become a cesspool of formula and it's up to us to try to change it... I feel like a…

— Alexander Payne

I like action films, not exclusively, but I like Samurai films. I like Westerns. Not so much war pictures, but a few.…

— Alexander Payne

Adult movies with any artistic credit are released in the last quarter of the year and expected to gird for battle for…

— Alexander Payne

When I'm introduced as a two-time Oscar winner, I'm happy that a film of mine has found an audience and some acclaim…

— Alexander Payne

The novel succeeds on terms exclusive to literature. A good film succeeds on terms exclusive to the cinema. That's why so many…

— Alexander Payne

I want studios to be financing director-driven, auteurist cinema, as they did in the '70s. I think it's starting to happen now.…

— Alexander Payne

I don't think so much about verbal comedy. I always think about visual comedy. I was raised watching silents, and I'm always…

— Alexander Payne

I'm considered to some degree a successful director working in Hollywood, making films my way but using studio financing. But with almost…

— Alexander Payne

I always think about visual comedy. I was raised watching silents, and I'm always thinking about how to make cinema, not good…

— Alexander Payne

A book is a book, but a movie is a movie. The more faithful you are, the more you'll come up with…

— Alexander Payne

Just because I make films doesn't mean I think they're great. I just make them and then when I'm done with them…

— Alexander Payne

Marketing has supplanted story as the primary force behind the worthiness of making a film, and that's a very sad thing. It's…

— Alexander Payne

All three parts of filmmaking [writing, shooting, editing] contribute to rhytm. You want the script to be a tight as possible, you…

— Alexander Payne

I don't think so much about verbal comedy. I always think about visual comedy. I was raised watching silents, and I'm always…

— Alexander Payne

I could never be a part of an adaptation of a film where there's pressure to not disappoint the immense fan base.…

— Alexander Payne

I like voice-over in films, and most of my films have been voice-over films.

— Alexander Payne

You begin a film more with questions than with direct intentions. It's more of an exploration and discovery.

— Alexander Payne

You look at how many years you have left, and you start to think: 'How many more films do I have in…

— Alexander Payne

The kindest thing a director can do is look with open eyes at everything.

— Alexander Payne

I don't feel despair because I am able to make the films I want to make, and that gives me hope.

— Alexander Payne

If you're not making epic, archetypal films on some level, I think you're wasting a great potential of cinema.

— Alexander Payne

As the years go by and I make more films, I am increasingly interested in capturing place as a vivid backdrop for…

— Alexander Payne

'Independent' means one thing to me: It means that regardless of the source of financing, the director's voice is extremely present. It's…

— Alexander Payne

Anytime you cast a movie and you need someone famous in the lead part, you're a prisoner of whoever happens to be…

— Alexander Payne