Robert Benton Quotes

I think that one of the things you have to do to become a storyteller is spend a lot of time reading stories.

I just love stories, and I love movies, learning and seeing the world. Growing up in Iowa, it was like, you wanna see the world? Movies can help you do that.

Read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read...if you don't read, you will never be a filmmaker.

For the years I spent working on it, 'Constellation' was the only novel I knew how to write, so maybe I still abided by the maxim? Regardless, I prefer the maxim: Write what you want to know, rather than what you already know.

Readers would email me and say, 'Please write a novel about so-and-so,' but it has to come from yourself and not so much from your readership.

Read a lot. Write a lot. Have fun.

Words, yes, formulating things, creating something from your heart, it is something very necessary, yes.

Everyone has early fiction fantasies, but it wasn't until my second child Betsy was born that I allowed the urge to write a novel bubble up.

When I see films like 'Lagaan' and 'Rang De Basanti,' I feel, 'Why can't I do work like this?' Then you think and realise you need to learn more to make this kind of a film or write this kind of a film. Also, somewhere down the line, you need to be brave.

I got into writing because books and stories were always a big part of my life. I loved listening to them and then reading them, and I loved making them up.

I could come up with 50 stories that I am thinking about.

I love film - it's like painting.

Books are challenging and inspirational to me.

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.

My only qualifications to be an actor were that I'm daring, and I'm a quick learner. I've always learnt by watching what other people do. It's the same with my writing. I write what I know. Structurally, I write in a very undisciplined way.

I'm trying to get in the habit of, you know, picking up a book and learning how to write my feelings down, not my feelings but my thoughts, about things, and hopefully I'll moving toward the writing and directing thing soon.

The cinema is there to heighten the imagination; I have always tried to make sure it does so.

A love of books has opened so many doors for me. Stories have inspired me and taught me to aspire.

My filmmaking really began with technology. It began through technology, not through telling stories, because my 8mm movie camera was the way into whatever I decided to do.

It was kind of enlightening to become a playwright.

I am happy to keep working on books because I'm always reading, and I'm always trying to fall in love.

My new novel 'Red Hook Road' began many years ago as a short article in the newspaper.

For me, writing stories is one way of feeling connected to the universe and God.

I decided to become an author when my grandmother taught me to write, when I was six. I can still recall the sensation of being able to turn words into stories. It was a miracle.

I'm going to take the kids away over Christmas but I don't, I've written 14 musicals now, I don't want to rush into doing something just for the sake of doing it. I want to do it when I find a story.