Latest Joe Swanberg Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• I think there's been a gigantic shift in the way we talk to each other, and the way that we communicate with each other. So as a filmmaker, the stuff's always been really interesting to me, and I sort of considered a lot of my films horror films, the ones that were relationship dramas, because I feel like it was very easy to look at modern communication and the Internet and cell phones and all that stuff as horror movies, basically.

  Joe Swanberg

  Drama, Communication, Thinking

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• I learn a lot as a director from acting in other people's films and just in general. I want to try and be as involved in the art of filmmaking as possible. I feel that the only way to really do that is to take on as many roles as possible, whether it be as an actor, an editor, a director, a cinematographer. Basically, I like to help and be involved, so anything anybody asks me to do, my first reaction is to say "Yes."

  Joe Swanberg

  Art, Trying, Acting

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• Most of my horror inspiration is really older stuff and really new stuff.

  Joe Swanberg

  Inspiration, Horror

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• The more that I work with people that I don't know, the more I invite somebody in who's potentially going to really hate being there.

  Joe Swanberg

  Hate, People, Being There

  Source: collider.com

• I'm usually two projects ahead. It's hard for me because I don't have a really long attention span.

  Joe Swanberg

  Two, Long, Attention

  Source: collider.com

• I've never been able to develop a movie over several years, and keep coming back to it and adding to it. I get excited by the spark of an idea, and if I can't go make that, there's another idea that comes along that I get excited about. It has to happen quickly, in order for it to happen, at all.

  Joe Swanberg

  Ideas, Order, Years

  Source: collider.com

• I guess I probably see myself as a director. If I had to choose, I think that that's the aspect of the process that I'm most excited by.

  Joe Swanberg

  Thinking, Directors, Excited

  Source: collider.com

• I always loved the work. As soon as I finished a movie, the most exciting thing to do was to try to jump into the next one. How I feel about it is that I learned a lot, so I'm grateful that I learned so much, at such a young age, rather than in my more adult professional career.

  Joe Swanberg

  Grateful, Careers, Age

  Source: collider.com

• I think I'll try to keep working in film for a little bit. There's something still kind of magical about it, that I don't want to let go of.

  Joe Swanberg

  Letting Go, Thinking, Trying

  Source: collider.com

• My relationship with my wife is fraught with all of the problems that any couples face, but there is a sense of humor that we have about it and a real desire to want to make it better.

  Joe Swanberg

  Couple, Real, Wife

  Source: collider.com

• In the 10 years that I've been a professional filmmaker, the film part of the film industry is really disappearing, right in front of our eyes.

  Joe Swanberg

  Eye, Years, Film

  Source: collider.com

• If you're a working mom, you're still expected to be a super-mom at home, buy organic food, put dinner on the table every night, and do all the research into preschools. It's really hard.

  Joe Swanberg

  Mom, Home, Night

  Source: collider.com

• There's a lot of cultural pressure around specialness and seeing your family. I feel like everything gets jacked up a little bit because of all of these expectations of love and family bonding.

  Joe Swanberg

  Expectations, Littles, Pressure

  Source: collider.com

• I do some freelance web design stuff. I taught a directing class for this not-for-profit organization here in Chicago a couple months ago. I wrote a thing for Filmmaker Magazine a couple months ago. Occasionally, I'll get to go speak to students at a university and make a little money that way, which is great. I really like doing that.

  Joe Swanberg

  Couple, Class, Organization

  Source: editorial.rottentomatoes.com

• Am I doing the movie because I'm really excited about it and want to do it, or am I doing it because it seems like it's a big budget or something like that? It would still have to be the right thing, because my lifestyle's really cheap and I'm able to exist doing smaller movies, so if I'm able to do that, I'm happy to do that. But if something bigger came along that seems really cool, then that would be great.

  Joe Swanberg

  Would Be, Want, Able

  Source: editorial.rottentomatoes.com

• There are people I'm drawn to that you just can't do a tiny, no-budget movie with. I would like to pursue some of that stuff, to see if I could do a movie with some of those people. And I don't really write scripts myself, but if I read a script I thought was really great, I would totally be up for doing a more traditional movie. It's just that I don't exist in that world.
  right now.

  Joe Swanberg

  Writing, People, World

  Source: editorial.rottentomatoes.com

• I don't have an agent. I don't take meetings or anything like that, so I don't really know what's out there. I'm not closed off to anything, but I'd just have to ask myself at every step if it's worth it.

  Joe Swanberg

  Agents, Steps, Meetings

  Source: editorial.rottentomatoes.com

• I want to communicate with people, and I want to make something that works, and that people like. I'm never purposefully trying to be antagonistic or shocking or anything that would push an audience away. I'm always hoping to reach as many people as I can.

  Joe Swanberg

  People, Trying, Want

  Source: editorial.rottentomatoes.com

• I do like the idea of doing something different, maybe doing something that's more like a genre film. And there are certain actors that I'd like to work with that would go along with working with a bigger budget.

  Joe Swanberg

  Ideas, Different, Actors

  Source: editorial.rottentomatoes.com

• I do think there's a smaller audience that's looking for something that's a little more adult and a little more nuanced [than many Hollywood movies]. At the same time, I think everyone who's making movies hopes to appeal to the widest audience possible.

  Joe Swanberg

  Thinking, Adults, Hollywood

  Source: editorial.rottentomatoes.com

• A lot of the people I'm working with are not actors, or it's their first time in a movie. I'm not trying to shape performances, coax performances out of them. It's more like I want to put them in situations that naturally work or allow them to be themselves. If it's not happening, I'll just completely switch it up, rather than trying to make it work.

  Joe Swanberg

  People, Trying, Actors

  Source: editorial.rottentomatoes.com

• There are different levels of scripting that we all use; I think I'm the most improvised of the three, and probably Andrew's the most written. But all of that is in pursuit of similar things, and I think that we kind of recognize that in each other.

  Joe Swanberg

  Thinking, Different, Three

  Source: editorial.rottentomatoes.com

• My directing is really weird. Everything is based on whether it's working or not. I don't try to fix something if it's not working, I'll just change it.

  Joe Swanberg

  Trying, Really Weird, Ifs

  Source: editorial.rottentomatoes.com

• We're looking for a certain kind of realism or naturalism, and we go about it in different ways, but I think we're all striving for the same end result, which is to capture the patterns of conversations and how people interact in a very realistic way.

  Joe Swanberg

  Thinking, People, Different

  Source: editorial.rottentomatoes.com

• It's great to meet people in a setting where it's really conducive to hanging out and having
  fun. Most film festivals are really low-stress, and good times to hang out with buddies and talk about what you're working on and come up with new ideas.

  Joe Swanberg

  Fun, Stress, Ideas

  Source: editorial.rottentomatoes.com