Ellen Burstyn Quotes

Being a director is almost like being another sort of character, but you're out of view.

When you are acting, you are just one piece of the puzzle. You don't see how everything fits together. It feels like you have less authorship over the entire product. In directing, you take the entire picture into account, so you're challenged in a different way.

I have great respect for directors who know what they're doing.

When you're a director, you really live whatever you do.

As a director, you try to find what is creative.

Everybody is always trying to make the best movie they can. It's a process.

All you can really do as director is sort of set a tone.

I want to direct, I want to be part of something creative, something with quality.

When you're writing, it's all up to you, and you don't have to make any compromises. And when you're directing, there's this intense pleasure you get from working with all these really talented people, and pooling the efforts towards a common goal. I like all the aspects of film-making.

I think each movie-making process is a very exhausting and satisfying and fulfilling experience for me.

Pick up a camera. Shoot something. No matter how small, no matter how cheesy, no matter whether your friends and your sister star in it. Put your name on it as director. Now you're a director. Everything after that you're just negotiating your budget and your fee.

Directing is really exciting. In the end, it's more fun to be the painter than the paint.

There is a director for a reason, because a director knows what's best for the movie. You just give your director as much as you can to work with, and hopefully, the decisions they make are going to be great.

Directing feels great; I'm really happy to be doing this.

I'm not the guy who does slo-mo, or I'm not the guy who does splashing rain or doves flying or anything; that's not me. Every film, I try and make it the way I see it in my head, and it really just depends on the script and the people I'm working with or whatever interests me at that particular time.

I view myself still as a director. That's what I do.

As a filmmaker, the only way that I understand how to make a film is holistically.

There's no way I see myself as a director. Direction is far too creative.

The filmmaker is really important to me: it could be their first film; it's not just about their reputation, but I have to really believe in them.

Filmmaking is the ultimate team sport.

A lot of directors, they're creative, but they're different.

I enjoy looking at words on paper and visualizing how to make them come to life. As a director, the creative process is really amazing.

I love being creative. I love acting, but I also love directing because you get to have a vision for the whole and bring that vision to fruition.

A film takes a lot of time, and yet not enough to share with the people you're making the movie with, I think.

With directing, you've got to find something and drag it up from its inception, and I'm at the early stages of doing that again. There's something all-consuming and addictive about that.