If you're trying to recreate life, the life that you best know is the one you grew up with. — Alexander Payne Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
You look at how many years you have left, and you start to think: 'How many more films do I have in… — Alexander Payne Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
When you watch a movie, you don't want to feel like a machine made it. You want to feel a soul. — Alexander Payne Copy Share Image
'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 Copy Share Image
They say you can do honest, sincere work for decades, but you're given in general a 10-year period when what you do… — Alexander Payne Copy Share Image
The best actors are always the ones who've directed as well, as they understand all the problems you face. — Alexander Payne Copy Share Image
You begin a film more with questions than with direct intentions. It's more of an exploration and discovery. — Alexander Payne Copy Share Image
I spend a long time casting, but once I've cast a film there's a reason why I selected those people. So I'm hands-on in… — Alexander Payne Copy Share Image
I don't feel despair because I am able to make the films I want to make, and that gives me hope. — Alexander Payne Copy Share Image
Forgiving yourself may be for many people, at least for myself, extremely difficult. And then in a larger context, I will say that I'm… — Alexander Payne Copy Share Image
In a general sense, to convert any short story, novel, play, or opera into a movie, you have to re-rig it. Even though they're… — Alexander Payne Copy Share Image
If you have your movies so that everyone understands everything, I think that's probably not a very good movie. — Alexander Payne Copy Share Image
I like actors who, when you see them on screen, you sense a person, not just an actor. — Alexander Payne Copy Share Image
If you're trying to recreate life, the life that you best know is the one you grew up with. — Alexander Payne Copy Share Image
I think about what movie I would like to see. I don't think of them as a correction or palliative. I certainly am irritated… — Alexander Payne Copy Share Image
If you were falling in love and you could go back in time and relive a day and see the banal things you did… — Alexander Payne Copy Share Image
