Quotes About Being A Director

#1. What I like about being an actress is that it keeps you feminine. Being a director and producer makes you manly and very masculine and I don't like that quality in a woman. But I'll do it when the film is very close to me.

Bai Ling

#2. I don't have an interest in being a director-for-hire on sitcoms - but if it's a really cool show that I thought I could bring something to, I would love to do that.

Jake M. Johnson

#3. There is an isolated experience to being a director. It's very communal because there's a crew, but it's only you. You're the one on the hook.

Noah Baumbach

#4. Being a director, whether you're in rehearsal or you're in auditions or you're in a creative meeting, is so much to me about being present in the moment. There's a sense of time stopping.

Diane Paulus

#5. The best thing about switching from being an actor to being a director is that you don't have to shave or hold your stomach in anymore.

Dick Powell

#6. I don't really have a drive toward being a director at all. Not that I wouldn't rule it out, but I just don't think my instincts lie necessarily in a very visual way. But I am very interested in storytelling, narrative and character development, so writing is something that I absolutely want to do.

Rose McIver

#7. For me, being a director is about watching, not about telling people what to do. Or maybe it's like being a mirror; if they didn't have me to look at, they wouldn't be able to put the make-up on.

Jane Campion

#8. Being a director is almost like being another sort of character, but you're out of view.

Paddy Considine

#9. I do think that's so much a part of what being a director is - in working with actors - to really try and be sensitive to what each actor needs to get to where he wants to be.

Bill Condon

#10. I can rely on me [being a director], unlike some actors. I never got anything less than what I needed from the lead actor.

Russell Crowe

#11. That's the fun part about being a director. You get to say, 'Oh, now that I'm in charge, I can try and cast whoever I want.' They can always say no, but that's okay.

Drew Goddard

#12. It's different being a director. I suppose, especially if it's a story you've written and you feel compelled to tell, in some ways it's a lot easier than acting because you're orchestrating the piece. As an actor, sometimes you're trying to second-guess what people want.

Paddy Considine

#13. But a writer's contribution is literary and a film is not literary. When you take that stuff off the page, and cast the people who are going to fit into those roles, that's what being a director is.

Taylor Hackford

#14. There is something about being a director where, for me personally, I get to ... it's the closest I'll ever come to being able to be a stand up. And to use my particular sense of humor, and hear people laughing, without me having to stand up in front of an audience and tell jokes.

Barry Sonnenfeld

#15. My main interest in being a director, and the most important thing to me, is that world with the actors.

Matt Reeves

#16. I know the pressures of being the daughter of a great actress. But it's inspiring. You learn so much that other people don't get to learn until later on. My father being a director, I learnt a real work ethic.

Natasha Richardson

#17. I was 17, certainly by the time I was 19, I knew that show business was where I was going to end up, and I had my sights on being a director.

Brian Henson

#18. When you work with a great director, you realise you are far from being a director.

Barkhad Abdi

#19. Being a director or a conductor is a balance of many things. And to do it right is a very difficult tightrope to walk. I've come to the conclusion that there's really no way to be one hundred percent popular as conductor.

Joshua Bell

#20. The nice thing about being a director is that I can say, "I can only get into the room after the kids are at school, and I have to be back for dinner. And they're coming for lunch."

Angelina Jolie

#21. I grew up thinking anything was possible simply because of seeing women in power - like, you know, running the country. Which is a thought that continues to give Americans indigestion ... Direction is about having a vision, but the practice of being a director is a con game - a confidence game.

Mira Nair

#22. I really love the experience of moving things around, in terms of being a director.

Johnny Depp

#23. I need to gain a lot more experience. I think so much of being a director, other than the technical aspect and the artistry of it, is the confidence that you are, I think in many ways, you're the captain of the ship.

Josh Peck

#24. It's such an intimate experience, being a director, artistically. It's deep and it's satisfying and it's wonderful, on so many levels, but it's also really scary.

Russell Crowe

#25. With my personal work I prefer not to work from storyboards because being a director, producer and animator in one person I don't have to communicate my idea to anyone else, I can keep the feeling of the story, the story arc and structure in my head.

Signe Baumane

#26. It's just that the nature of being a director is being incredibly overwhelmed with getting the shots right, dealing with the locations, and then there's a two-year-old in the scene, and all that stuff - you know, there's a lot of kids in scenes ...

Jay Duplass

#27. I started out with this dream of being a director and doing cinematography and bought my first film camera at 15.

James Brolin

#28. There's people constantly asking you for something on set, so the multi-tasking of motherhood transfers very well to being a director. And I think you're compassionate.

Angelina Jolie

#29. I think that's the key to being a director: to be able to get the shot and move on quickly.

Bobby Farrelly

#30. I learned so much about being an actor by being a director. More than I ever thought I would.

Chris Lowell

#31. I didn't dream about being a director. I didn't know I wanted to do something with film until the summer between my sophomore and junior years at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia.

Spike Lee

#32. When I feel like being a director, I write a novel.

John Irving

#33. Being a director, just to begin with, is just, I think, one of the hardest jobs just because you have to work in every way. You have to work with actors, you have to be involved with the producers and the writing and the action. Every department comes to you; you have to deal with everything.

Agnes Bruckner

#34. One of the gratuities about being a director is that you can volunteer yourself out of difficult details.

Steven Spielberg

#35. I don't care about names attached to the script. That doesn't matter to me. All things being equal, I would like to work with a good script with a good director, and the part I play is of less important than those two factors.

Alan Arkin

#36. My film school is making movies. But, I do think that being an actor has served me immensely, as both a writer and director, in terms of knowing what is playable and what will be fun to play, for actors, and also how to communicate to actors on set, and not screw them up and get them in their head.

Josh Radnor

#37. If you know where you stand, and your minus and plus points as a director or as a human being, you will never go wrong. You will always be successful.

Rohit Shetty

#38. I'm not interested in being a celebrity; I'm interested in being a better actor and a better director.

Denzel Washington

#39. As a director, you want to be really connected to every part of your set, from your actors all the way to your camera operators. Everybody is a part of the creative process, and if they feel like they're part of a team versus just being a tool, they're going to give you something special.

Eric Balfour

#40. The director calmed me down and told me I was being too hard on myself. He went on to say that I wasn't quite as bad as I thought, but needed to tone things down a bit.

Dwight Schultz

#41. When Ron Howard does 'Rush,' he has to learn and steep himself in F1 culture and European racing culture, and that's part of the fun of the gig. You learn to learn. Your real skill as a director is being a learner and an observer. You're constantly learning another thing in context.

Jon Favreau

#42. As an actor, I'm attracted to drama; as a director, it's humor - because it's the story of my life, and I can't be that serious about it. Being alone is a big theme in all my movies, both as a director and as an actress.

Jodie Foster

#43. The problem with being a writer/director: unless you're really disciplined, you start adding projects, and you have to make time to make them. Because you have to write them ... no one else is writing them for me.

Cary Fukunaga

#44. Work is fun to me. All those years of being an actor and a director and not being able to get a job - two weeks is too long to not know what my next job will be.

Dennis Hopper

#45. It never occurred to me to be a film director, partly because I hadn't seen a single film by a female director, but I liked the idea of being a writer moving to Hollywood and being unhappy; that sounded romantic and fabulous to me.

Mary Harron

#46. With 'Moreau,' it's been particularly confusing because I started out being the writer of the screenplay and then trying to be the director, then being moved from being the director and having to become the dog extra, it makes some kind of sense to suddenly become a character in the story.

Richard Stanley

#47. My high school musical did not offer a shirtless Zac Efron but it did provide me with many lessons. I learned that I loved being in a theatre, attending rehearsals, and building sets. I loved listening to the director and groaning about rehearsing choreography

Amy Poehler

#48. If you want to keep on being relevant as a director, I think you have to embrace the times. And with the times come technologies and formats.

Alfonso Cuaron

#49. I love being on set, because I've basically grown up on a set. And now I love to contribute as a director and help steer the ship, if you will.

Ricky Schroder

#50. The difference between being an actor and a director is simple. The director has to hide his panic; the actor doesn't.

Alan Rickman

#51. Being a film director involves, above all, a lot of hard work and resolve and determination. The glamour doesn't come until the premiere and the thing is all long done.

D.W. Griffith

#52. Being nominated is a great thrill, and we like to say that all four of us were nominated, which means that our director, Anthony Page was nominated four times.

Bill Irwin

#53. I've been shocked by film actors - 25 and under - having such confidence and cockiness to rewrite a scene. My background is more about the director being in control. It's all about yielding. It's an oddly submissive relationship in which you're moulded, Pygmalion-style.

Anne-Marie Duff

#54. With movies, so much of it is, 'Who is the human being that is going to be directing it?' Because it is their medium. In a way, you are serving the director, and when it is someone that you feel you can have a lot of confidence in, it can make a big difference.

Annette Bening

#55. The good part of working in TV is it's like being a studio director in old Hollywood and approaching different genres. It's a chance to try out different styles.

Mary Harron

#56. Being on a set where the director has lost control is just sickening. No one goes the extra mile, there's a lot of eye-rolling ... it just breeds inertia. If a director is in control, the crew follow their leader. But the second anyone senses the directors are not sure, people just swoop in.

Christine Vachon

#57. As a painter you're responsible yourself, 100 percent. In film, you have the editor, the director, the other actors. It has the advantage of not being solitary.

Sylvia Kristel

#58. As far as getting my start, it was really Norman Lear, even aside from being on 'All in the Family.' He helped me get my start as a director. He was the one who said, 'Let him do 'Spinal Tap.' Let him give it a try,' because I had been trying for years to get that thing off the ground.

Rob Reiner

#59. There's obviously something that feels very good about being with a new filmmaker who's very excited, but I also think there's something very comforting in a director who's been around a few times. Both have their pros and cons.

Brie Larson

#60. I think [director] Malcolm Lee is a real master at being able to make you laugh while bringing serious subject-matter, so the movie doesn't hinge on silliness, but on real life.

Ice Cube

#61. It's kind of interesting to be a director who is all of a sudden being an actor playing an agent. This is my whole world!

Mark Rydell

#62. Like any creative human being, I would like a bit more control so that it would be a little easier for me when the director says, 'One tear, right now,' that one tear would pop out.

Marilyn Monroe

#63. Being an actor really, really strengthens me as a director. There's just a certain type of understanding that comes from having been there and knowing how much is really being asked of actors that helps me.

Aaron Ruell

#64. Nails. The gyms you go to are crowded with guys trying to look like men, as if being a man means looking the way a sculptor or an art director says.

Chuck Palahniuk

#65. When it comes to acting, it's about creating a character and bringing forth a director's vision. It's a weird feeling, because with acting, it's just not about me. I love being in that position, because with the music, it's always about me.

Lenny Kravitz

#66. When you're a screenwriter, it's like being a mechanic. You open the hood of the story, the director is the driver, and he says, "What do you think? It's a little tough."

Thomas Bidegain

#67. Being a conductor is kind of a hybrid profession because most fundamentally, it is being someone who is a coach, a trainer, an editor, a director.

Michael Tilson Thomas

#68. Being an actor is great; you chill in your trailer, and they bring you a breakfast burrito and coffee. But as director, you're responsible for every little thing.

Justin Chon

#69. I'm a film rat. I love being in front of a camera. I love being behind a camera. I love talking to the director. I love talking film.

Jim Caviezel

#70. With 'That Awkward Moment', you could argue I'm just playing the girlfriend of Zac Efron, but the director was such a creative force and let me make her my own. I loved being part of something that felt so relevant and fresh.

Imogen Poots

#71. We often hear of a male director directing a great indie and immediately being offered the next huge comic book movie. Rarely, if ever, does this happen to a woman.

Lesli Linka Glatter

#72. Kelly Preston is a remarkable human being and a great dramatic actress. It was a privilege as a director to tap into this part of her. Rarely do I make a kind of spiritual connection with my cast. Kelly was a wonderful exception. She is truly very special and I adore her.

George Hickenlooper

#73. Obviously, you know, I am known as an action director, and being a film editor previously had been a great advantage for me as an action director.

John Glen

#74. Being a good director is knowing sometimes when not to say something.

Gary Oldman

#75. There's something mystical and wonderful about being in the room with the actual live performer s on stage that works. In film, it doesn't work so you're dependent on a great director to keep the thing moving along.

Marshall Brickman

#76. I've been directed by other actors, and being an actor doesn't make you a good director.

Laurie Metcalf

#77. It's harder being a woman director because on the whole women don't have husbands or boyfriends who are willing to be wives

Jane Campion

#78. Each Catwoman is specific to the Gotham City she lives in and the director that helps shape her. So it's kind of hard to have a favorite and I'm not just being political, it's hard to have a favorite because each one is so specific as themselves.

Anne Hathaway

#79. It happens a lot, but I also think of it as not so much like being abandoned by a director 'cause they're worried about a technical aspect, but I think actually that's my job.

Amy Ryan

#80. Being a [bank] director is like being a pilot of an aircraft - it's years of boredom and seconds of terror.

Moira Johnston

#81. The most important thing for a director is being able to communicate.

Kevin Hart

#82. To have a museum like the Museum of Modern Art in New York is to have power. I don't have any interest in being the director of an institution that has power.

Luis Gonzalez

#83. It was weird because I was pregnant, throughout that so it was weird being a pregnant witch. I was in a really bad mood but luckily, because I sleep with the director, he just sort of scheduled me so I only had to do it two nights.

Helena Bonham Carter

#84. There was a time when I desperately wanted to be part of a Yash Chopra film, not because he was a great director, but because I was an outsider and I wanted that validation of being accepted in the film industry.

Katrina Kaif

#85. this very act of consenting to its loss of control is itself the critical event of all crisis. To give up ones stature as the director of ones own existance: this is, for us, the ultimate death, the crisis that undermines our being in the most radical way.

Jerome A. Miller

#86. I love being a writer-director. I couldn't imagine directing without writing it. You have to write and tell your stories - that's what directing is to me.

Mike Mills

#87. I don't wilt easily, and a director can't either. He's the captain of the ship and he's got to be in total control. He also has to have respect for the people he's working for. From being an actor and being on a set my whole life, I'm very comfortable there. And I'm not afraid.

Ricky Schroder

#88. Nolan has long been a devout subscriber to the cause. A director famed for being able to get a multimillion dollar project off the ground with only his own name as collateral, he

Anonymous

#89. As a kid, I wanted to be an astronaut. And my own passion was that I wanted to be a film director. I realized that being an astronaut was not going to be an option, so I said, "Well, I'm going to be a director and do films in space."

Alfonso Cuaron

#90. There's nobody who loves being around actors working more than David Mamet, especially actors bringing his tremendous dialogue to life. I've never seen a movie director who was happier to be directing a movie than Dave.

Clark Gregg

#91. The profession of film director can and should be such a high and precious one; that no man aspiring to it can disregard any knowledge that will make him a better film director or human being.

Sergei Eisenstein

#92. Sometimes I get insecure about being a real director because I look at the great directors, and they have such command. But maybe that keeps me critical of myself. Maybe it keeps me moving forward.

Ben Affleck

#93. Being a popular director or actor's son can be frightening in this industry. What if you are not able to make it?

Anupam Kher

#94. When a film works, the director had a lot to do with that, but the director also didn't have a lot to do with that. There are so many moving parts. It's really about being open to how the river is flowing and trying to get on the river.

Mike Mills

#95. As a director and an actor, it is very difficult to say "this person was better than another person." I judge by chemistry of the actors but it is difficult being a judge. I will never bash any of the actors.

Tommy Wiseau

#96. I loved being in the room with Mamet as a director - he is the most generous, funny, delightful person to work for every day.

Richard Thomas

#97. Just being hired by a great director is complimentary.

Tom Skerritt

#98. There's a little burst of creativity being director followed by lots and lots of meetings and talking to people and more meetings. It's scary. And I can't believe anybody actually lets me do it. But it's going well so far.

Timothy Miller

#99. I spent all my time on my movies worried that people were eating and that the schedule was being kept, so to have experts in those areas giving me the brain space as a writer and director is huge.

Lena Dunham

#100. CIA Director George Tenet briefed a Senate panel ... about the current situation in Iraq. He described how cash was being stolen and women were being assaulted with impunity. Senators love to attend these continuing education seminars.

Argus Hamilton