Directorial Freedom Quotes

The people who've done well within the [Hollywood] system are the people whose instincts, whose desires [are in natural alignement with those of the producers] - who want to make the kind of movies that producers want to produce. People who don't succeed - people who've had long, bad times; like [Jean] Renoir, for example, who I think was the best director, ever - are the people who didn't want to make the kind of pictures that producers want to make. Producers didn't want to make a Renoir picture, even if it was a success.

I've directed all my videos throughout my whole career, 'cause that's leeway. I was granted that opportunity to be able to do that.

TV is generally an unfriendly environment for directors because you're expected to come in and tell a story in the voice of the show that already exists and just fill in the blanks and then submit it back.

Expectations that black directors have to make black films about black subject matter are, to me, kind of absurd.

Having total freedom to direct my own movies is more difficult than those I was hired for, where the framework has been already furnished. Unlike with my own work, I don't have to deny or feel embarrassed at the straightforwardness or orthodoxy of the directorial style, because I can say in excuse, "This is how I was asked to direct by those people."

When you're doing a film, people are always telling you exactly what to do. Literally, your own decisions are taken away from you.

We always said that directors work their whole lives to get final cut on a movie. We have that. So why would you want to run away from what every other director is sprinting toward their entire careers?

As a director, just to be able to jump in to do something that's different, and to explore comedy and be challenged by that, is great. Some directors never get that opportunity.