Quotations and aphorisms by Paul Thomas Anderson :

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

~Paul Thomas Anderson





Link:

https://openquotes.github.io/authors/paul-thomas-anderson-quotes/#e4be50f9

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

~Paul Thomas Anderson





Link:

https://openquotes.github.io/authors/paul-thomas-anderson-quotes/#79148551

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

~Paul Thomas Anderson





Link:

https://openquotes.github.io/authors/paul-thomas-anderson-quotes/#bdcbc0eb

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

~Paul Thomas Anderson





Link:

https://openquotes.github.io/authors/paul-thomas-anderson-quotes/#4e4b87f8

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.

~Paul Thomas Anderson





Link:

https://openquotes.github.io/authors/paul-thomas-anderson-quotes/#afc7b882

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

~Paul Thomas Anderson





Link:

https://openquotes.github.io/authors/paul-thomas-anderson-quotes/#fc045611

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.

~Paul Thomas Anderson





Link:

https://openquotes.github.io/authors/paul-thomas-anderson-quotes/#3559dd1f

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.

~Paul Thomas Anderson





Link:

https://openquotes.github.io/authors/paul-thomas-anderson-quotes/#aa9c9b25

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.

~Paul Thomas Anderson





Link:

https://openquotes.github.io/authors/paul-thomas-anderson-quotes/#3857112f

I write from my stomach.

~Paul Thomas Anderson





Link:

https://openquotes.github.io/authors/paul-thomas-anderson-quotes/#5ec941b5

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

~Paul Thomas Anderson





Link:

https://openquotes.github.io/authors/paul-thomas-anderson-quotes/#ff8afdd8

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.

~Paul Thomas Anderson





Link:

https://openquotes.github.io/authors/paul-thomas-anderson-quotes/#ce3843b2

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

~Paul Thomas Anderson





Link:

https://openquotes.github.io/authors/paul-thomas-anderson-quotes/#ad1ef57c

I had never read Upton Sinclair. I didn't read 'The Jungle' in high school or anything like that. But it's pretty terrific writing.

~Paul Thomas Anderson





Link:

https://openquotes.github.io/authors/paul-thomas-anderson-quotes/#f356ce32

To make a film, the final big collaborator that you have is the composer.

~Paul Thomas Anderson





Link:

https://openquotes.github.io/authors/paul-thomas-anderson-quotes/#dd575664

You have to be a brat in order to carve out your parameters, and you have to be a monster to anyone who gets in your way. But sometimes it's difficult to know when that's necessary and when you're just being a baby, throwing your rattle from the cage.

~Paul Thomas Anderson





Link:

https://openquotes.github.io/authors/paul-thomas-anderson-quotes/#1baef8a0

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.

~Paul Thomas Anderson





Link:

https://openquotes.github.io/authors/paul-thomas-anderson-quotes/#47aed846

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

~Paul Thomas Anderson





Link:

https://openquotes.github.io/authors/paul-thomas-anderson-quotes/#931cfd52

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.

~Paul Thomas Anderson





Link:

https://openquotes.github.io/authors/paul-thomas-anderson-quotes/#bfbe1870

Well I'd really love to work with Robert De Niro, because he's still the most talented actor out there.

~Paul Thomas Anderson





Link:

https://openquotes.github.io/authors/paul-thomas-anderson-quotes/#edbb2068

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

~Paul Thomas Anderson





Link:

https://openquotes.github.io/authors/paul-thomas-anderson-quotes/#5010bc84

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

~Paul Thomas Anderson





Link:

https://openquotes.github.io/authors/paul-thomas-anderson-quotes/#22c6442e

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

~Paul Thomas Anderson





Link:

https://openquotes.github.io/authors/paul-thomas-anderson-quotes/#712d81c6

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!

~Paul Thomas Anderson





Link:

https://openquotes.github.io/authors/paul-thomas-anderson-quotes/#0557603a

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.

~Paul Thomas Anderson





Link:

https://openquotes.github.io/authors/paul-thomas-anderson-quotes/#5669645d

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

~Paul Thomas Anderson





Link:

https://openquotes.github.io/authors/paul-thomas-anderson-quotes/#2420d92f

Of course, I'm no dummy.

~Paul Thomas Anderson





Link:

https://openquotes.github.io/authors/paul-thomas-anderson-quotes/#4b2a46f1

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

~Paul Thomas Anderson





Link:

https://openquotes.github.io/authors/paul-thomas-anderson-quotes/#5864612f

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

~Paul Thomas Anderson





Link:

https://openquotes.github.io/authors/paul-thomas-anderson-quotes/#75107ffb

As I have got older and become a father, there's less and less time for films.

~Paul Thomas Anderson





Link:

https://openquotes.github.io/authors/paul-thomas-anderson-quotes/#c2f3fb44

The films that I love are very straightforward stories, like really old-fashioned stuff.

~Paul Thomas Anderson





Link:

https://openquotes.github.io/authors/paul-thomas-anderson-quotes/#88c300bb

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

~Paul Thomas Anderson





Link:

https://openquotes.github.io/authors/paul-thomas-anderson-quotes/#a90e4c27

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.

~Paul Thomas Anderson





Link:

https://openquotes.github.io/authors/paul-thomas-anderson-quotes/#f6dfe5ba

But I'd be lying if I didn't say that every time you go to make a film, you're desperate to either do it better than you did it last time or to not repeat yourself.

~Paul Thomas Anderson





Link:

https://openquotes.github.io/authors/paul-thomas-anderson-quotes/#e3f273f1

I've never been a fan of whimsical or confusing storytelling.

~Paul Thomas Anderson





Link:

https://openquotes.github.io/authors/paul-thomas-anderson-quotes/#8e0e8684

So with 'There Will Be Blood,' I didn't even really feel like I was adapting a book. I was just desperate to find stuff to write.

~Paul Thomas Anderson





Link:

https://openquotes.github.io/authors/paul-thomas-anderson-quotes/#0155587e

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

~Paul Thomas Anderson





Link:

https://openquotes.github.io/authors/paul-thomas-anderson-quotes/#228918ff

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.

~Paul Thomas Anderson





Link:

https://openquotes.github.io/authors/paul-thomas-anderson-quotes/#26766523

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

~Paul Thomas Anderson





Link:

https://openquotes.github.io/authors/paul-thomas-anderson-quotes/#0edb3ba9

How do I respond to criticism? Critically. I listen to all criticism critically.

~Paul Thomas Anderson





Link:

https://openquotes.github.io/authors/paul-thomas-anderson-quotes/#145d4ba2

I don't want to be the angry guy.

~Paul Thomas Anderson





Link:

https://openquotes.github.io/authors/paul-thomas-anderson-quotes/#465d3458

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.

~Paul Thomas Anderson





Link:

https://openquotes.github.io/authors/paul-thomas-anderson-quotes/#f7bca2c7

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

~Paul Thomas Anderson





Link:

https://openquotes.github.io/authors/paul-thomas-anderson-quotes/#c4bf0d25

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