Quotes from the Film Division Quotidian

Andrew Sarris--Auteur Study: Billy Wilder

"I've become compulsive--I've become like Monk--when I see things I have to pick them up--I measure them with a symmetrical. "

"Be good now--because if you live to be as old as I am you have nothing but regrets--it becomes too burdensome."

"Today--the brightest are brighter than ever, and the stupid are just as stupid--but the middle is lost."

In reference to a remark about the old professors in Mitchell Leisen's "Ball of Fire": "N0 they're not gay! Are the seven dwarfs gay? If you're gonna deal with the 40s get back in the mindset."

"Nowadays there's so much violence on-screen. Even the gun deaths in Cleveland are rising precipitously."

June Stein--Directing the Actor I

"The job of an actor is to live truthfully under imaginary circumstances"--I think she is quoting someone else here...

Maggie Greenwald--Directing I

"Have you heard the quote by Elia Kazan?--the mediocre actor becomes a good director"--in reference to my informing her I was not admitted to any MFA Acting programs...

"Spielberg--the master craftsman and manipulator. We use him in the classroom because he is so clear and so direct...and we love to hate him...but he is the master of his craft."

"You need to plan your films visually. You can't put the puzzle together in your head--it's like singing in the shower--you think it sounds good--but it doesn't"

Steven Bach--Role of the Producer

"There isn't a single thing in the Bourne Ultimatum aside from color and sound that the Lumieres didn't invent in some way."

Bach on 300:

"Produced by a guy who was my office boy--and he was illiterate then--the New York Times said 'As violent as Apocalypto and twice as stupid'"

Janet Roach during "Crit Week" Session:

"What's with the chicken shots? That was where we started falling in to the second act saggies."

Richard Brick--Role of the Producer:

"No matter what budget level you're at--you never have enough--it's like living in New York--there's never a comfort level. You want a bigger place? You can't afford it--no matter where you live."

"If you have a union crew you are less likely to get departments to help each other out. What warms my Line Producer heart is when I see more people pitching-in on set."

Todd Haynes at a screening of his Bob Dylan film "I'm Not There":

"It's the process of somebody repainting, restyling, redevising oneself from the inside out and from the outside in."

...and a snippet of my conversation with him regarding working with Cate Blanchett:

TH: "She is warm and funny, and great to work with.. and she is so incredibly smart!"

Me: "Gotta love those Australians."

TH: "I know--it must be something in the water down there."

Dan Kleinman--Short Films

"Well--there we have it--that's what makes horse racing."