Quotes By Paul Thomas Anderson

I actually enjoyed the struggles that we had trying to shape 'Blood', to get the pacing right, the rhythm of it.

Crazy is so hard to play, there's nothing you can really tell an actor.

Film school is a complete con, because the information is there if you want it.

I don't think the competition's so rough, within the majority of movies made in Hollywood.

I didn't have any desire I might have had 10 years ago to shoot every single word that I wrote.

I'm completely aware of the fact that I'm a control freak.

Clinton used to like to get out of the White House a lot. He would take night trips to McDonald's, and stuff like that. I think he wanted to get out of the house.

I don't think it's a director's job to peek behind the curtain too much.

I really subscribe to that old adage that you should never let the audience get ahead of you for a second. So if the film's abrasive and wrongfoots people then, y'know, that's great. But I hope it involves an audience.

You know, I'm really not that competent at describing things musically.

My dad was this sort of avant-garde guy who did all kinds of weird things. He was a true original and anybody who met him never forgot him.

I think my job is to try and be as honest as I can with what is in my mind and how I feel - I think that's what you're supposed to do, if you're a good writer. So I try to do that. I know I do that. I do do that.

No matter how many times you do it, you don't get used to the sadness - for me at least - of coming to the end of a film.

There's a lot for screenwriters to steal from songwriters, in terms of getting to the point.

Screenwriting is like ironing. You move forward a little bit and go back and smooth things out.

I had the standard movie geek childhood, because for as long as I can remember, all I wanted to do was make movies.

I don't want to be the angry guy.

I always had a dream about trying to make a movie that had no dialogue in it, that was just music and pictures. I still haven't done it yet, but I tried to get close in the beginning.

I remember being taught in school that you would underline things that you liked. I remember just underlining everything as a kid, thinking, 'This has all gotta be important!' I would just underline the whole thing!

I am always looking for that nuance, that moment of truth, and you can't really do that fast.

I'm not really a Sundance baby, but they helped me so much I feel I have to acknowledge it.

I'll rebel against powers and principalities, all the time. Always, I will.

I don't get a sense of American pride. I just get a sense that everyone is here, battling the same thing - that around the world everybody's after the same thing, just some minor piece of happiness each day.

My writing has a lot to do with who I am, and what my life is like, and my relationships to people.

No, really. Just do it. You have some kind of weird reasons that are okay.

It's a gamble you take, the risk of alienating an audience. But there's a theory - sometimes it's better to confuse them for five minutes than let them get ahead of you for 10 seconds.

It felt like the first thing, but when I first started out, I got a job adapting a book by Russell Banks called 'Rule Of The Bone.' I didn't do a very good job. I didn't really know what I was doing in general, let alone how to adapt a book.

I have a feeling, one of those gut feelings, that I'll make pretty good movies the rest of my life.

Acting is the hardest job in the entire world. By far. Harder than ditch digging.

I don't miss scenes at all the way that I used to miss them when I was younger making a film. It's actually quite fun to get rid of them now.