Stephen Hopkins Quotes

I've never let producers tell me what to do. Even when I was making television, I always did what I wanted to do, and if I couldn't, I didn't do it. It was a freedom that, these days, young directors starting out don't have.

I've been lucky enough to have had the luxury of being able to make the picture I've wanted to make each time on my own terms and without compromise.

Independent film is film that has thought in it. There's no independent thought in studio films. It's collective thought.

My heart is in independent film-making. For me, it's where the fun, gritty storytelling is being told.

I love doing short films because they're much more intimate and there's far less waiting around than on the bigger films.

And, so yeah, I'll always want to work in independent films because you're not forced into a category or a formula.

The lifeblood of my career has been independent film.

I definitely think independent film is very exciting, and you get to sometimes take bigger risks. So that's always a challenge and something that I look forward to.

Networks like Adult Swim allow artists to be artists and allow their vision to come through without a lot of tinkering. I worked on 'Moral Orel' and 'Mary Shelley's Frankenhole,' and they bothered us very little. They very, very seldom came to us and said 'Change this,' or 'You can't do that,' or 'We'd like to see this.'

In my first label Shrapnel Records I wasn't expected to do anything except the creative music that I wanted to do. I was my own boss, which is great.

The reason I decided to become a solo artist in the first place was because I always felt that the results that I got from working as a team where everyone had equal say... ended up with compromised, watered-down results.

I have my own ideas when it comes to making cinema. My films should be of my liking and suit my convictions.

It is difficult to make movies on your own terms and also to make a film and convince somebody to have faith in it.

I direct, and I make movies I can't finance. I can't raise money. I can't sell anything. I make things.

I want to have the illegitimate child of independent film making and the budget to make it. That's my aspiration.

I've always felt that an independent film is a film that almost doesn't get made.

I've never had a good game plan. At a certain point, making independent films became more and more appealing to me because I like freshness and originality.

I write about what I want to write about, and so the film comes out as a very personal expression even if its subject matter is totally prefabricated.

It feels very, very good to make a film freely, to work without having to wait years for script approval, without looking over your shoulder.

I think Van Sant is the most important American director we have. He takes the most risks. He's just pure to me.

To make great movies, there is an element of risk. You have to say, 'Well, I am going to make this film, and it is not really a sure thing.'

I completely take on the risk, the poker game, which being an artist means, and I'm going to try to make a film which honestly reflects what I have in my head.

But I'm never gonna get to a point in my life where what it costs to shoot a movie is going to determine what it is. The limits of my imagination is the only thing that's gonna stop me.

I kinda went back to that period between '88 and '94 where I felt like I was the most creative, without being hindered by powers that be. I was no longer going to try to hinder myself to what I thought was going to be on the radio.

The Weinsteins believe in test screenings. I don't. I don't think good films are made that way. Call me crazy, but I'd like to think you need a singular vision to make good art.