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 More Quotes by Neil Jordan More Quotes From Neil Jordan I hoped that grief was similar to the other emotions. That it would end, the way happiness did. Or laughter. Neil Jordan laughtergriefway For me, the filmmaking has to be about the dramaturgy. Neil Jordan filmmaking Is it fair to have given us the memory of what was and the desire of what could be when we must suffer what is? Neil Jordan sufferingdesirememories You've got to play what people think you are, rather than what you are. You have to have a sense of what you are as you're playing what people think you are. Neil Jordan peoplethinking It's hard to know whether certain characters come to life or not, they either come to have their own life or they don't. I've written many things in which the characters just remain inert. Neil Jordan certainknowscharacter Never make a promise - you may have to keep it. Neil Jordan maypromise The most difficult thing is the organization of people and the expression of your intentions. It's very easy to have a picture in your head and to imagine that you've told everybody about what you need. Neil Jordan organizationexpressionpeople I don't know why anybody would come to Ireland chasing a dream or even employment - that's an extraordinary thing for a place where traditionally one was unemployed. For 10 years, people were coming from all over the world looking for employment here, kind of an extraordinary phenomenon. That's stopped now. Neil Jordan dreampeopleworld It's the same thing in a way, although writing a book is a very solitary thing. Neil Jordan writingbookway It is extremely difficult to get movies that cost more than $40 million to be made these days. Neil Jordan these-dayscostmade Well, Company of Wolves was about that literally, about fairy tales. Neil Jordan talesfairy-talewells Hollywood always chooses young and beautiful men and throws them into enormous, highly expensive toy-like movies, and I think sometimes it's hard for the maturity of the craft to emerge in that kind of glare. Neil Jordan maturitybeautifulmen Well, I suppose I'm interested in ways of storytelling and in stories that are about storytelling. Neil Jordan storytellingstoriesway I've also worked hard portraying an Ireland which is fast disappearing. Ireland was a very depressed and difficult place in the 1980s, and I've tried to include that in the script. I worked really hard to find the heart of the book. Neil Jordan scriptsheartbook The Company of Wolves is about how society teaches young women to look at themselves, and what to be afraid of. It's about a girl learning that the world of sensuality and the unknown is not to be feared, that it's worth getting your teeth into. Neil Jordan teethgirlsensual I just got back from New York, and I realized in New York, it's very difficult to hear a New York accent. It's almost impossible, actually - everybody seems to speak like they're from the Valley or something. When I grew up, you could tell what street in Dublin someone's from by the way they talked. Neil Jordan difficultspeakimpossible It's nice to work with Hollywood because there is never any question of resources put at your disposal to make a film as long as it is the right thing to do. Neil Jordan hollywoodnicelong It's the opposite journey from what I've usually done with films. I find it very easy to go from, say, a lit, pleasurable environment, like what you see outside there, to a very dark place. But the opposite journey, which is what this movie takes, is much more complicated. Neil Jordan journeydarkopposites For example, the character of Claire in In Dreams wasn't imagined enough by me. Annette Bening is a great actress, and she gave a great performance, but because I hadn't fully written it essentially the character wasn't finished. Neil Jordan exampledreamcharacter Ireland is becoming like everywhere else, but that's the one I grew up in: the one that's hugely illogical. Rather wonderful, in a way. I never found this oppression of religion and that, but I did enjoy growing up in a culture that didn't need to be rational all of the time. Neil Jordan growing-upwonderfulculture
