I don't care how much hardware you throw at an audience. If they are not emotionally invested in the thing, it's zero. I can name a slew of films, but I have no ax to grind. I understand the commerce of Hollywood probably better than anyone.

Bill Paxton

Categorized in : You Better Name Care

Through readiness and discipline, we are the masters of our fate.

Bill Paxton

fate destiny discipline

When you start out as a filmmaker, you do parodies, because you can't really compete on a studio level.

Bill Paxton

competition movie inspiring

I didn't have a normal background - I was completely demented from a very early age!

Bill Paxton

demented normal age

Stop your grinnin and drop your linen

Bill Paxton

aliens-movie linen aliens

You don't really get to pick and chose what you would like to be doing. But I've been very fortunate, and I think water seeks its own level. You do gravitate towards things that you would get off on.

Bill Paxton

levels water thinking

Howdy. I'm gonna separate your head from your shoulders. Hope you don't mind none.

Bill Paxton

shoulders vampire mind

I hate tests. It's a really lousy way to judge a person's ability.

Bill Paxton

tests hate judging

It's very liberating to be naked in front of a hundred people, but there's nothing sexual about lovemaking on a movie set.

Bill Paxton

naked hundred people

It's always good to have no expectations when you see a film. Then you can be pleasantly disappointed or surprised.

Bill Paxton

disappointed film expectations

I've always loved movies about con men. I think con men are as American as apple pie.

Bill Paxton

apples men thinking

We mystify the art of moviemaking, but it's not amystical science. You take a good screenplay, put a group togetherand you hammer it out.

Bill Paxton

hammers groups art

People interpret things through their owns lens, just the way they do the Bible. You can find justification for just about everything in the Bible. I think man has got a great ego when it comes to his God, whatever that is. It just seems to me that someone who wants to take on God's punishment, it just seems a huge egoism to think that he should appoint himself to take care of God's punishments.

Bill Paxton

bible men thinking

In the old days the studios guided your career. Now it's all up to you.

Bill Paxton

old-days up-to-you careers

Slow motion is so visually cinematic; when you create that, you create it for your audience, you let them have the feeling of what it must be like to be there. And in a movie, you can't forget the audience.

Bill Paxton

slow-motion feelings forget

It's become very popular in contemporary films to have the twist ending.

Bill Paxton

twists popular-song film

A good filmmaker is someone who can look at a piece and go, "This camera's really going to be a character. I want people to feel like they're being punched."

Bill Paxton

cameras character people

Don ’t start that shit (laughs)

Bill Paxton

It was so weird that I would end up directing 'The Greatest Game Ever Played,' because, y'know, I'm not a big golfer myself. But I grew up around the game. My mom and dad kind of built their dream house off the 11th fairway of Shady Oaks Country Club in Fort Worth.

Bill Paxton

game myself dad mom

In our game, it's your vanity that keeps you in shape. I've got a little gym set up, and I ride a single-speed bike up the hills behind my house. Lately I've been kind of a slacker. Usually it's a film role that makes me start getting in shape. Between roles, I try to do a little maintenance, but I'm not a workout fanatic at all.

Bill Paxton

ride me you bike

I'm actually really opposed to the death penalty.

Bill Paxton

penalty really death-penalty death