I can't do a film if I don't start with the writing. Neil Jordan More Quotes by Neil Jordan More Quotes From Neil Jordan In Dreams...well, I was slightly overcompensating with that. I was a bit like a director for hire, so maybe I was putting too much imagery that was familiar to me into it. Neil Jordan too-muchdreamdirectors The Company of Wolves doesn't belong in any category, so it's difficult to prepare an audience for it. It's not a horror film, it's not a fantasy film, it's not a children's film - so what is it? Neil Jordan fantasyhorrorchildren Well, if you're talking about the current climate, there's a lack of content in American film because I think people are deeply confused about their emotions, and they don't regret certain aspects of their own foreign policy. Neil Jordan confusedregretthinking I'm less comfortable making American movies because I don't know them so well. Neil Jordan american-moviewellsknows Films have gotten leaner and leaner, cutting out all variations from the story line. Neil Jordan variationcuttingstories For me now, it's about what you would write and what you wouldn't write, and that's how I select what I am going to do. It can be quite nice being brought a concept by a studio for me to work on. Neil Jordan selectnicewriting I've had three novels published, and I was working a little bit in theater in Ireland. I wrote one film script just to see what it would turn out like. Neil Jordan scriptsthreelittles And I think I often choose to do something because it's quite different from what I've done before. Neil Jordan differentdonethinking If you're brought up Catholic, you're convinced of magic at a very early age. You're convinced the world isn't entirely real, which is a kind of conviction that never leaves you, for some strange reason. Neil Jordan magiccatholicreal I had made a decision, although I hardly knew it yet. It's often that way with decisions, they're made in some hidden part of us and the awareness secretes itself slowly into that conscious part of us that imagines it decides. Neil Jordan imaginedecisionway But everyone gets burnt, don't they? Certain things are outside of your control. I suppose the only thing you can learn as a director is to not put yourself into situations where it can get outside of your control. And that's what happened. Neil Jordan situationcertaindirectors The great thing about fairy tales and myths is that they go beyond character. They're not about character. They're about more basic things. They're about basic fears or longings or desires or fantasies, and stuff like that. Neil Jordan fairy-taledesirecharacter I do enjoy working with writers. Neil Jordan enjoy I took two years away from making films to write a novel. Neil Jordan writingtwoyears I mean I grew up in Ireland, so one would have to be consciously blinkered not to have reflected on the issue of political violence because that was the story since I was 19 years old or 20. Neil Jordan issuesmeanyears The truth is that seals look more like dogs. And I'm surrounded by seals because I live by the sea. They're odd bloody creatures. Not fish, they don't have gills, they should have legs, but they don't. They're the weirdest things, you know? Neil Jordan truth-isodddog My conception of it was that in a normal film you have a story with different movements that program, develop, go a little bit off the trunk, come back, and end. Neil Jordan movementdifferentstories There's no point in making a film out of a great book. The book's already great. What's the point? Neil Jordan great-bookfilmbook Initially with The Butcher Boy, there was this kid growing up in this strange, weird environment that I remember from when I was a kid. And Patrick's vision was so complete there. Neil Jordan growing-upboyskids The whole Ireland was taken over by greed and materialism. It was extraordinary. The price of every house had skyrocketed. If you were a small farmer and you had two fields outside, if you built 17 bungalows on them all, you become a millionaire, that kind of thing. It was extraordinary to see how rapidly that kind of ethic takes over a whole culture, but that's what's happened to us since the year 1998, about. It's completely extraordinary how little regard the culture had for the landscape. The country is now full of these half-built industrial parks and hotels. Neil Jordan takenhousecountry
