Olivia Williams Quotes

Everything I've ever written, I had a very distinct vision of what I wanted it to look like. But, other directors never do it that way.

The director is the only person who knows what the film is about.

When I was working on 'Big Fan,' I didn't really feel like any lines needed to be changed or enhanced or expanded upon in any way. I thought it was a solid script. All you had to do was what it said.

When you've written a film and directed it and it comes out exactly as you imagined it, it's pretty boring.

Directing is creating a whole. You're able to combine different elements and create a film that is unique and true to your vision.

The rules are: The only ego is the film, and you have to serve the film.

John Boorman was the best director I've ever had.

I have always believed that when a film is being made, it has to be the director's vision.

I always try to approach a film from the point of view of the director.

I never control a film. The film controls me.

As a director, I start with the visual.

I think everything that I've done, I've been involved with for longer. Either you develop it from scratch, or you take something, and you develop it, and you work on the script, but I'm not sure how good I'd be at just sort of taking a piece of material and being a director for hire like that.

I've learned a lot from Clint [Eastwood], who's an extremely economical director.

What's interesting as a director, and even studio executives don't understand this, is that if you're directing a $200 million movie with six million people, it's the same as directing a $25,000 movie with three people. The director's job is, "You stand there and do that," or "This is the shot I want." The logistics change, but the job remains the same. And I enjoy the job.

My process differs... my process for a Richard Linklater film is very different than a process for Training Day.

Shooting a movie can be so tedious. You're trying to get 20 different angles on the same swing. You never get into a rhythm. But I took it very seriously.

That's interesting to hear you say that because watching it [the Waitress] for the first time at Sundance was fascinating - it was so different from the experience of making it.

I don't see myself directing things I don't write because, to me, directing was just an extension of the writing process.

I'm all about working with directors that are doing different techniques and I think everyone has their way of getting it to the place that they think is best.

I don't want to direct a movie as good as Antonioni, or Kubrick, or Polanski, or whoever. I want it to be my own. I think I've got the seed of it and, what's more, that I can make movies that are different and informed by my taste.

It sounds kind of flighty, filmmaker-y, but I believe films are a piece of art. They are meant to be what they're meant to be, and sometimes the artist is informed by the film of what it needs to be.

Make film, shoot film, run film. Do something. Make film. Shoot anything.

I think that I get different kinds of joy out of directing a film and acting, and it's sort of necessary to just be doing one and focusing on that. I'm in awe of anyone who tries to be an actor-director, so I couldn't really see that.

The great, rewarding thing about directing is that you're overseeing the whole thing. When you're an actor, you're just one department.

The root of any film project for me is this inner need to express something. What nurtures this root and makes it grow into a tree is the script. What makes the tree bear flowers and fruit is the directing.