Crazy is so hard to play, there's nothing you can really tell an actor. Paul Thomas Anderson More Quotes by Paul Thomas Anderson More Quotes From Paul Thomas Anderson You have to be a brat in order to carve out your parameters, and you have to be a monster to anyone who gets in your way. But sometimes it's difficult to know when that's necessary and when you're just being a baby, throwing your rattle from the cage. Paul Thomas Anderson monsters baby order I don't get a sense of American pride. I just get a sense that everyone is here, battling the same thing - that around the world everybody's after the same thing, just some minor piece of happiness each day. Paul Thomas Anderson around-the-world pieces pride I don't miss scenes at all the way that I used to miss them when I was younger making a film. It's actually quite fun to get rid of them now. Paul Thomas Anderson missing fun way How do I respond to criticism? Critically. I listen to all criticism critically. Paul Thomas Anderson criticism My dad was this sort of avant-garde guy who did all kinds of weird things. He was a true original and anybody who met him never forgot him. Paul Thomas Anderson avant-garde dad guy Acting is the hardest job in the entire world. By far. Harder than ditch digging. Paul Thomas Anderson hardest-job acting jobs To make a film, the final big collaborator that you have is the composer. Paul Thomas Anderson finals film bigs No matter how many times you do it, you don't get used to the sadness - for me at least - of coming to the end of a film. Paul Thomas Anderson film sadness matter I write from my stomach. Paul Thomas Anderson stomach writing My older sister was at the cusp of new wave, and I had older brothers from my father's first marriage who were rock 'n' roll guys, so I was exposed to a lot of popular culture. Paul Thomas Anderson rocks brother father I don't think it's a director's job to peek behind the curtain too much. Paul Thomas Anderson jobs directors thinking I had the standard movie geek childhood, because for as long as I can remember, all I wanted to do was make movies. Paul Thomas Anderson geek childhood long It felt like the first thing, but when I first started out, I got a job adapting a book by Russell Banks called 'Rule Of The Bone.' I didn't do a very good job. I didn't really know what I was doing in general, let alone how to adapt a book. Paul Thomas Anderson jobs book firsts I'm not really a Sundance baby, but they helped me so much I feel I have to acknowledge it. Paul Thomas Anderson acknowledge feels baby Of course, I'm no dummy. Paul Thomas Anderson dummy courses It's so hard to do anything that doesn't owe some kind of debt to what Stanley Kubrick did with music in movies. Inevitably, you're going to end up doing something that he's probably already done before. It always seem like we're falling behind whatever he came up with. "Singin' in the Rain" (1952) in "A Clockwork Orange" (1971) - that was the first time I became so aware of music in movies. So no matter how hard you try to do something new, you're always following behind. Paul Thomas Anderson orange rain fall So with 'There Will Be Blood,' I didn't even really feel like I was adapting a book. I was just desperate to find stuff to write. Paul Thomas Anderson writing book blood Clinton used to like to get out of the White House a lot. He would take night trips to McDonald's, and stuff like that. I think he wanted to get out of the house. Paul Thomas Anderson white night thinking I don't want to be the angry guy. Paul Thomas Anderson angry guy want I didn't have any desire I might have had 10 years ago to shoot every single word that I wrote. Paul Thomas Anderson desire might years
