Quotes By Paul Thomas Anderson

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

I write from my stomach.

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 don't want to be the angry guy.

My older sister was at the cusp of new wave, and I had older brothers from my father's first marriage who were rock 'n' roll guys, so I was exposed to a lot of popular culture.