Alex Gibney Quotes

For a documentary filmmaker, I do very well.

There's no money in documentaries.

Believe me, it's not easy being an actress and a producer, especially with no big daddy to support you.

My son tried to work in films and he ultimately gave it up, he finally couldn't make a living, he couldn't support himself. He worked all the time and he didn't make enough money to have a house, have an apartment.

But one does not make living writing poetry unless you're a professor, and one frankly doesn't get a lot of girls as a poet.

I had to live on $17,000 a year until I was 33, because I was a failed artist until I was 29, when I made my first short film that went to Sundance.

It's nice to have awards from time to time. There was a time when I had to make a living from my writing, and it wasn't always easy. I value awards a lot - and more so if there is a little cash with them!

Pretty much everybody we know in Glasgow who's in a band has another job. All of us have worked in bars, cafes, or cinemas. It means you can afford to do the thing you love.

I still have to work paycheck to paycheck. Being in show business doesn't indicate that you're a 'success,' in my opinion.

Now both my films have been number one at the Australian box office and it took about two years just to get the finance for this film, so if it's hard for me then God help everyone else.

Maybe if I found something I was really passionate about, which is entirely possible, I would make another documentary, but it's not a good career choice for anybody. I don't recommend it.

You can't make a living as a playwright. You can barely scrape by.

A lot of people live much more simply than in the old days. That doesn't bother me. Keeping busy is the problem. Television guest shot fees are going down. You can do a dozen guest shots a year, but you're not making that much money.

Coppola has problems getting financing, so why should I not have problems getting financing.

There were many years when I was hand-to-mouth and didn't know how I was gonna make rent. I've done every job under the sun, from busing tables, temping, and working in factories to SAT prep and detailing cars. So to be able to make a living where all I do is write is absolutely liberating.

I started to make some commercials, which was a way for me to finally make a living at last. But it was only really a couple of films in that it looked like a viable career option.

I don't think people understand when you say you are making a micro-budget film that you are getting paid no money.

As the world of independent feature filmmaking became increasingly commercialized by the mid-1990s, there was also a parallel, much more positive development: a resurgence in documentary filmmaking, thanks in part to the advent of the cheaper, lighter digital format that helped to offset the daunting costs of pursuing political aims through film.

One of my aims was to be paid as well as a plumber. Plumber was better-paid than any performance artist who was always doing this for free. It is so important to make a good living from art. You know, John Cage, until he was 60, he couldn't pay electricity.

I've talked about this a lot, but 'The Witch' took four years to finance because there were certain compromises I wouldn't make.

It's great to make strong, powerful films, but in terms of people wanting to finance them, it's also very difficult.

A long and productive career in the world of films is bound to be checkered with success and failures. You cannot have one without the other; the only way not to make a flop is not to make a film.

For a long time after I left 'Bonanza,' I was considered too independent. That meant I got the rejects other actors could afford turning down. I did theater which I loved, but it cannot pay the bills.

My mother was really against it when I said I wanted to make films. She said that I should be a civil servant because that was safe, and it had security. But my mother was always very proud of my movies and would give videocassettes of them to all the neighbours.

My memories of the whirlwind '90s are a blur of work schedules. I was completing my B. Com. degree in 1991 when I took to modelling and acting in TV serials. A year later, I found my foothold in movies.