I recently decided that I'm not an originator. I'm a synthesist. Steven Soderbergh More Quotes by Steven Soderbergh More Quotes From Steven Soderbergh There's a big difference between a movie about relationships and a movie in which people talk about relationships. It seems like a lot of people have confused the two. Steven Soderbergh confusedpeople I was lucky that I was getting exposed to a lot of different kinds of films, and I was liking them all. So it seemed logical to me that you could - as in the style of the studio directors of the 30s and 40s - jump from one genre to the next, with the same satisfaction. Steven Soderbergh nextstylesatisfaction Men tend to define themselves by what they do, and so if you're dealing with a character who's trying to figure that out, or multiple characters, then there's something there for guys, too. Steven Soderbergh guycharactermen My experience over the years with working with people who are not actors or not trained actors is that you have to get to know them well enough to see what they have that's translatable onto the screen. So you're constantly calibrating to play to their strengths. And the key is to never ask them to do things that are beyond their abilities or are really far away from who they are at their core. Steven Soderbergh keysplayyears Never had a cup of coffee in my life. Dr Pepper is my caffeine delivery system of choice. Steven Soderbergh drscoffeechoices It's a weird thing to say, but it would appear to me axiomatic that if you understood fully what I was doing and appreciated it, you would like it. Steven Soderbergh understoodweird-thingsappreciated I stopped reading reviews about my own movies. I read stuff about other people's movies. Steven Soderbergh readingstuffpeople [I watch] Fincher, Spielberg, Cameron, McTiernan. Just people who are good at staging action. I like to know where I am. I don't like the kind of cutting where you don't know where you are. Steven Soderbergh cuttingwatchespeople Surprisingly, I don't throw away that much. I don't move forward with a lot of things unless they're going somewhere. You also have to remember that when you're working with other artists, you have to be really careful about how you deal with that stuff. Steven Soderbergh working-with-othersartistmoving Whenever you experiment with something, it's very easy to take the emotion out of it. And going back and forth between wanting to be respected artistically and wanting to move people is its own challenge. Steven Soderbergh challengespeoplemoving I suppose I could try to be some avant-garde artist if I wanted to, but that doesn't interest me as much. Steven Soderbergh avant-gardeartisttrying I have no shame in making music that maybe, if you listen to it long enough, you'll realize you've heard this or that part of it before. I'm still very excited by an amazingly written song, so that's really the thing that I work on when I make records with people. Steven Soderbergh songlongpeople I'm still very affected and moved by their music - maybe in a way that's different from someone who grew up around it. Steven Soderbergh grew-updifferentway I actually didn't find out about a lot of music until I was older. Some people have been listening to the Beatles their whole lives; I didn't discover them until I was 18 years old. Steven Soderbergh listeningpeopleyears I feel I need to really think about whether there's a way to use what skill I have to address things that outrage me, like the 13 year old girl getting stoned to death. Because I don't think making a movie is going to help that, or change that. Steven Soderbergh girlyearsthinking I guess I just look at talent as a very subjective thing. I mean, if you never tried playing an oboe, how do you know you're not the most talented oboe player ever? The point is that if you don't love it, then it doesn't matter. Steven Soderbergh oboesplayermean I was thinking that people have to believe you're crazy in order to take you seriously as an artist. If you're wandering the streets, talking in gibberish, nobody ever asks you to change anything about your art because there's no context for people to look at what you do. Steven Soderbergh crazybelieveart Stuff I like is getting trashed and stuff that is being praised I think is terrible. I don't really feel in sync with what's happening, but at the same time, what I think keeps me afloat is that I try not to be, and don't want to be, very indulgent. I try to make the films as lean as possible, and to not spend a lot of time crawling up my own ass creatively. Steven Soderbergh stuff-i-liketryingthinking There are people who are originals and the stuff they make really is new. It isn't based on anything else. But I've decided I'm not that-I was never that. My abilities are to synthesize a wide range of references and ideas into something that feels relatively unified and coherent. Steven Soderbergh stuffpeopleideas I'm obviously really opinionated, but as a producer, you don't necessarily want the person you're working with to try to impress you - you want them to just be themselves. Steven Soderbergh producerswanttrying
