Terry Zwigoff Quotes

I like the intimacy of independent films and I like the idea that people aren't being paid necessarily as much money as some one on a studio film.

We try to make films for people [that are] the films that we'd like to see. They're not easy to get made. They're hard to get made. You have to keep the budget low to get them made. But at the end of the day, I don't really worry about competition, because I don't really think of it that way. I don't feel like I'm in a race with anybody.

I enjoy doing independent films more, only because there's more freedom. There's not as many cooks tampering with what you are trying to do.

The independent films are really where I kind of come from and where I feel comfortable. It's never been about the blockbusters and making a huge tonne of money. It's always been about wanting to do projects about the things that I think are important to be out there.

When I did small films like Lily and Buenos Vista, everyone thought my career would be ruined.

People are making better and better small budge independent films these days.

I think it's dynamite, the way my career has just kept moving, even when people didn't know it did. I made such interesting films, but, yeah, they're not necessarily the big movies that go to the supermarket. I don't need those movies, because I don't wanna do them.

I don't make movies because I think audiences will want to go see them.

I get a lot of independent films from people who are starting out.

We need more extreme movies in Sweden. Personal projects that are necessarily made for a bigger audience. I think it creates a creative lock-up to have the audience as a goal.

I'm always looking for a reason to say no when I'm approached about a big studio tentpole because your fear is will you be consumed into the anonymous machine, and it will suck out any specificity and point of view that you might hope to express.

Unless it's something very clever like 'Memento,' most independent films have a very tough life out there.

The Cannes film festival is about big-budget films but also remarkable films made in different political regimes by film-makers with little resources.

I did a few independent films, but there is no money in them.

If you have a career like mine, which is so identified with Hollywood, with big studios and stars, you wonder if maybe you shouldn't go off and do what the world thinks of as more personal films with lesser-known people. But I think I've fooled everybody. I've made personal films all along. I just made them in another form.

The kinds of films that I'm used to doing are independent films. They're very small character-driven pieces, and there isn't as much spectacle involved.

I think of myself as making independent films within the studio system. Yes, I've made movies with significantly larger budgets, and I've also made movies with smaller budgets.

We need people with foresight who are willing to make films with smaller budgets and accept smaller profits.

I think, in general, independents don't have a lot of access to really good scriptwriters or actors or actresses, so they're very limited in what they can do.

The reach of big-budget films is bigger, but I have always loved doing films that I believe in.

I can't afford to wait for big films. So I take up small films as they provide maximum exposure.

I think making small movies reminds you of the effort. When you make big movies, the effort is to fight for freedom. When you make small movies, the effort is making the day, making the budget, and it's great, too.

I'm from that world where I feel so comfortable making small independent movies.

I didn't fill it up with movies every time because I was trying to just film one damn movie, but that's the heartache of independent films.

I think my home is in that sort of the part of cinema that's disappeared is where I lived, that sort of mid-budget you know, drama. I suppose that's what I am known for.