Latest John Sayles Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• When I read a story or see something play out in front of me I say, how come nobody's made a movie or a television show out of this? This is something that belongs in the conversation. Certainly that's what interests me about a project.

  John Sayles

  Play, Stories, Television

  Source: blogs.indiewire.com

• As a screenwriter I'm often writing in genres where there have been thousands of movies; whereas when I direct movies they tend to be in between genres. They tend to have a little bit of a genre to them, but they're really about the people, and they're people we haven't met before.

  John Sayles

  Writing, People, Littles

  Source: blogs.indiewire.com

• I'm never at a loss for new projects.

  John Sayles

  Loss, Projects, New Projects

  Source: blogs.indiewire.com

• I see very small movies being financed by crowdfunding. If you're a well-known actor or celebrity of some sort, you can probably raise between one and two million. I don't have that kind of cult [following].

  John Sayles

  Two, Actors, Kind

  Source: blogs.indiewire.com

• I've always got five or six things that would either make a good feature or TV show. And you just never know. You go and you pitch and it may be exactly what they're looking for, or they may stop you after two sentences and say, "Oh, we've already done something just like that."

  John Sayles

  Tv Shows, Two, Done

  Source: blogs.indiewire.com

• The hardest thing about movies is doing take 12, 13, and 14, and finding new ways to do the same lines. So the early takes are actually easier and I think there's more surprises in them.

  John Sayles

  Thinking, Lines, Way

  Source: blogs.indiewire.com

• There are very few distributors left to do off-Hollywood movies, and those distributors generally have got thousands of movies to choose from. So you're pretty lucky if you get one to even take your movie and it's pretty rare that they pay anything upfront.

  John Sayles

  Hollywood, Lucky, Pay

  Source: blogs.indiewire.com

• I never actually do rehearsals. That's one of the reasons that I write those bios and if I can meet with the actors I'll meet them or talk to them on the phone. What I want is for them to come on set knowing their lines and knowing who the character is.

  John Sayles

  Writing, Character, Phones

  Source: blogs.indiewire.com

• Sometimes people can't afford to work for you, or they're not interested or available, and you hate to have written the whole movie with somebody in mind and not get them.

  John Sayles

  Hate, People, Mind

  Source: blogs.indiewire.com