Charlie Kaufman Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• When I'm writing a script, before I can write dialogue or anything, I have two or three hundred pages of notes, which takes me a year. So, it's not like "what happens next." I've got things that I'm thinking about but I don't settle on them. And if I try to write dialogue before then, I can't. It's just garbage.

  Charlie Kaufman

  Writing, Thinking, Years

  "Exploring Things: Charlie Kaufman & Duke Johnson On 'Anomalisa'". Interview with Brian Tallerico, www.rogerebert.com. December 29, 2015.

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• Everything I've written is personal - it's the only way I know how to write.

  Charlie Kaufman

  Writing, Way, Know How

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• I really like when critics reveal their subjectivity and their humanity. I prefer it when people say nice things, but if they say not-nice things or things that are critical, I'm open to it and I accept it. I mean, I have to live with it. But I do think there's a dishonesty in not acknowledging that you're a person with an opinion. I think it's almost like a power grab.

  Charlie Kaufman

  Nice, Mean, Thinking

  "Charlie Kaufman" by Scott Tobias, www.avclub.com. October 22, 2008.

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• I do a lot of things intuitively. I'm not often consciously aware of what I'm doing. It's like in a dream: There's something going on that's powerful but you don't know exactly why.

  Charlie Kaufman

  Dream, Powerful, Knows

  "'Synecdoche, New York' Director Charlie Kaufman". Interview with Howard Feinstein, www.indiewire.com. October 24, 2008.

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• I think directing and writing are very different jobs. Obviously, directing is a more social and managerial job. The other thing about directing is that it's a very, very pragmatic job, and writing isn't.

  Charlie Kaufman

  Jobs, Writing, Thinking

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• I try when I'm writing to leave enough "space" for people to have their own interpretation, and not to direct it toward one conclusion. Then the audience would not be reacting, because they are being preached to or lectured at. I don't have that much to say that I think people should listen to me.

  Charlie Kaufman

  Writing, Thinking, Space

  "'Synecdoche, New York' Director Charlie Kaufman". Interview with Howard Feinstein, www.indiewire.com. October 24, 2008.

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• I feel like I want to keep moving toward idiosyncracy. Personal, personal, personal.

  Charlie Kaufman

  Moving, Want, Keep Moving

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• There really is only one ending to any story. Human life ends in death. Until then, it keeps going and gets complicated and there's loss. Everything involves loss; every relationship ends in one way or another.

  Charlie Kaufman

  Loss, Stories, Way

  "Charlie Kaufman: Hollywood's Brainiest Screenwriter Pleases Crowds By Refusing To Please" by Jason Tanz, www.wired.com. October 20, 2008.

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• You and I share the same DNA. Is there anything more lonely than that?

  Charlie Kaufman

  Lonely, Dna, Adaptation

  Charlie Kaufman (2001*). “Adaptation: Screenplay”

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• We're all subjective beings and trapped in our own realities and our own biographical stories and physical bodies and our histories - and that's the only way we can experience the world.

  Charlie Kaufman

  Reality, Stories, World

  "Immersed in Movies: Charlie Kaufman & Duke Johnson Talk ‘Anomalisa’ and Adult Stop-Motion". Interview with Bill Desowitz, blogs.indiewire.com. November 16, 2015.

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• Every day of your life, you have information that enters your head, and that information informs your understanding of things, or shifts it, or changes it, or deepens it, or confuses you. Every day, every moment of every day - it's like this thing that happens.

  Charlie Kaufman

  Understanding, Information, Moments

  "Charlie Kaufman" by Scott Tobias, www.avclub.com. October 22, 2008.

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• There's no way to approach anything in an objective way. We're completely subjective; our view of the world is completely controlled by who we are as human beings, as men or women, by our age, our history, our profession, by the state of the world.

  Charlie Kaufman

  Birthday, Men, Views

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• Story ideas, but it's also musing on stuff that I'm thinking about. This leads me to this and this leads me to this. They're kind of random and haphazard. Often I can't find anything. Somehow, by doing that, even though I don't necessarily refer to them in a specific way, I have some sort of architecture in my head.

  Charlie Kaufman

  Thinking, Ideas, Stories

  "Exploring Things: Charlie Kaufman & Duke Johnson On 'Anomalisa'". Interview with Brian Tallerico, www.rogerebert.com. December 29, 2015.

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• From my vantage point in writing a story, I can't and don't and have no interest in thinking about the level of sophistication of the audience. I can only think about what interests me, and maybe what I would want to see if I were watching the movie. To me, that's the key to writing something that's not pandering.

  Charlie Kaufman

  Writing, Thinking, Keys

  "Michel Gondry & Charlie Kaufman" by Scott Tobias, www.avclub.com. March 17, 2004.

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• David Lynch is very important to me, and he does dreamlike movies, but my dreams are not like David Lynch's dreams. I have no interest in copying anybody's work. It would never occur to me to want this to look like someone else's thing.

  Charlie Kaufman

  Dream, Important, Copying

  "Charlie Kaufman" by Scott Tobias, www.avclub.com. October 22, 2008.

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• As a writer, or as a filmmaker, you have to present yourself, and part of what yourself is is what you're interested in, or what you think is funny, or what you think is sad, or what you think is horrible.

  Charlie Kaufman

  Funny, Thinking, Horrible

  "RT Interview: Charlie Kaufman on 'Synecdoche, New York'". Interview with Tim Ryan, editorial.rottentomatoes.com. October 22, 2008.

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• There are too many ideas and things and people. Too many directions to go. I was starting to believe the reason it matters to care passionately about something, is that it whittles the world down to a more manageable size.

  Charlie Kaufman

  Believe, Ideas, People

  Charlie Kaufman (2001*). “Adaptation: Screenplay”

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• I do have, at different times, a certain kind of self-consciousness in the world, an insecurity.

  Charlie Kaufman

  Self, Insecurity, Different

  "RT Interview: Charlie Kaufman on Synecdoche, New York". Interview with Tim Ryan, editorial.rottentomatoes.com. October 22, 2008.

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• I do like escapism. I like going to the movies on a Friday night and seeing something fun.

  Charlie Kaufman

  Friday, Fun, Night

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• Clementine: This is it, Joel. It's going to be gone soon.
  Joel: I know.
  Clementine: What do we do?
  Joel: Enjoy it.

  Charlie Kaufman

  Gone, Eternal Sunshine, Clementines

  "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind". Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi, www.imdb.com. 2004.

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• I really don't have any solutions and I don't like movies that do.

  Charlie Kaufman

  Solutions

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• If I were doing somebody else's script or I adapted a book by Philip Roth, on set there could be a million different interpretations of the material and people could argue with me. Certainly on Synecdoche, New York we had discussions and arguments, but I felt like I had authority because I'm a writer.

  Charlie Kaufman

  Book, People, Different

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• I have a lot of anxiety about medical things for example. I don't think I'm particularly good at it, but I'd had the practice when I went into shooting Synecdoche. It can be somewhat gratifying, too, because I don't have that relationship with other adults where I need to comfort them or they come to me for that.

  Charlie Kaufman

  Thinking, Anxiety, Comfort

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• My time on the set is the least of my involvement. Most of my time is in pre-production and post-production.

  Charlie Kaufman

  Involvement, Posts, My Time

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• I don't think screenwriting is therapeutic. It's actually really, really hard for me. It's not an enjoyable process.

  Charlie Kaufman

  Thinking, Process, Screenwriting

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