James Gunn Quotes

Directing has completely changed the way I write and watch films.

I discovered that, in order to write a magnificent piece, you should shoot the images because once you are filming, you are writing the script in your mind.

When I write a screenplay, and when I direct, I always pull lines out.

I'm in awe of directors like the Coen brothers who can shoot their script and edit it, and that's the movie. They're not discovering the movie in postproduction. They're editing the script they shot.

Directing was easy for me because I was a writer director and did all my directing when I wrote the screenplay.

I hope to direct at some point, but I don't feel the pressure to rush it. I want to really know what it is that I'm doing.

I think making a film is as much knowing what you don't like as what you do like, and avoiding the things that you don't like like the plague and making sure that they never appear onscreen in any shape or form.

I definitely in filmmaking more and more find writing and directing a means to harvest material for editing. It's all about editing.

The storytelling in a movie is in the cut; it's in the edit. It's not an actor's job, really. Your job is such a tiny little thing, and I love the feeling of juggling or tightrope walking.

What I do have to get across is the truth of the moment within the given scene. It's my job, as a director and screenwriter, to create the environment in which all those moments will come together eventually.

When you make a movie, you do it so piecemeal. You're doing it, not only scene by scene, out of order, but shot by shot, line by line. And there's this idea that the director has the whole thing in his or her head and they're going to somehow weave it all together in the end.

I think from an early age I was aware of how a camera can tell a story, how a movie camera can affect how the narrative is told.

It's not a film-maker's job to explain his technique, but to tell his story the best way he can.

When you look at a movie, you look at a director's thought process.

I have considered the directing, actually. Not so much the writing. That is not really interesting, but the directing is really interesting to me.

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

Being a filmmaker is kind of like being a glorified spy.

TV and film taught me to think cinematically. Teaching others to edit, for example, provides a great deal of insight into the millions of ways in which given elements can be put together to tell a story.

That's the only way I can control my movie. If you shoot everything, then everything is liable to end up in the movie. If you have a vision, you don't have to cover every scene.

All my film ideas and subjects have come from photography.

There are times when I'm driving home after a day's shooting, thinking to myself, That scene would've been so much better if I had written it out.

It's sort of one ongoing process where writing ends and directing starts.

I feel like I'm a filmmaker; I don't feel I need to yell action and cut.

You make the movie through the cinematography - it sounds quite a simple idea, but it was like a huge revelation to me.

I'm just beginning to direct. For all intents and purposes, this is the first time for me.