Top 41 Schrader's Quotes
#1. I was Paul Schrader's assistant for six months before I went to film school, and he's very much about knowing what's going to happen on every page before you even start writing dialogue - the entire plot and character arcs are mapped out.
Jonathan Levine
#2. As screenwriters, we struggle with our own success. We have wallpapered our world and now we can't get anyone to notice the picture we just hung.
Paul Schrader
#3. I'm basically depressive, cynical, prone to intellectualization.
Paul Schrader
#4. I don't think it's very useful to open wide the door for young artists; the ones who break down the door are more interesting.
Paul Schrader
#5. Film noir is not a genre. It is not defined, as are the western and gangster genres, by conventions of setting and conflict, but rather by the more subtle qualities of tone and mood. It is a film 'noir', as opposed to the possible variants of film gray or film off-white.
Paul Schrader
#6. All men are sinners, Eleanor. The greater the man, the greater the sins.
Helena P. Schrader
#7. I get bored very easily. I find most movies boring. I go to movies and ask, "How do they stay awake making this?"
Paul Schrader
#9. Contradiction is the heart and soul of character and drama. You're always looking for it. I loved her so much I hit her; that's character. I loved her so much I hit her again; that's even more character.
Paul Schrader
#10. Screenplays are not works of art. They are invitations to others to collaborate on a work of art.
Paul Schrader
#11. The racing is no different if it is day or night except you see the lights and the sparks. You run the race the same. The day or night doesn't really affect the race.
Ken Schrader
#12. The only economic paradigm that movies have ever known is capitalism. There were no church sponsors or state patronage. The idea was that if you'd pay to see it, we'll make it for you.
Paul Schrader
#14. I was raised as a Calvinist, which is doctrine-driven. And though there are many things wrong with Calvinism, you are at least encouraged to argue about things.
Paul Schrader
#15. Anything that doesn't bore me I think is doable because it's keeping me awake.
Paul Schrader
#16. Once you have a situation that is fresh, then you sort of believe in it and it becomes normal. So you do end up with protagonists that haven't been in other movies before.
Paul Schrader
#17. The secret of the creative life is to feel at ease with your own embarrassment.
Paul Schrader
#18. Because many of the films I've made have had an intellectualedge, it's harder for me to lie. It's harder for me to go to peoplewith money and say I don't care about art, all I care about iscommerce; all I really want to do is make money.
Paul Schrader
#19. I'm big on this 'no budget, no pay.' I think that's important. Let's get right at the heart of the issue. Even when I was in the state legislature, the most important function we had was to pass the bloody budget.
Kurt Schrader
#20. The secret of the creative life is how to feel at ease with your own embarrassment. We're all in the dirty laundry business and we're being paid to take risks and look silly. Race car drivers get paid to risk their lives in a more concrete way; we get paid to risk our lives in an emotional way.
Paul Schrader
#21. At the end of the day, if it looks like you're not going to get paid, you might be willing to compromise to make sure that budget actually comes out. It's not all about your extreme point of view.
Kurt Schrader
#22. You know, when you're in your twenties you use a great deal of symbolism. You somehow think that a character standing beneath a cross is more interesting than a character standing underneath a billboard, but when you get a little older you realize that there's not much difference.
Paul Schrader
#23. I firmly believe that if members of Congress fail to perform their most basic duty in passing a budget, then they do not deserve to be paid.
Kurt Schrader
#24. The clock is impotent; mechanical time does not affect those living in an eternal present.
Paul Schrader
#25. I am open and willing to work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle on a variety of appropriate measures we can take to prevent firearms from getting into the wrong hands and mitigate future tragedies.
Kurt Schrader
#26. I still think like a critic, and I still analyze films like a critic. However, it's not possible to write criticism if you're making films.
Paul Schrader
#27. If you write interesting roles, you get interesting people to play them. If you write roles that are full of nuance and contradiction and have interesting dialog, actors are drawn to that.
Paul Schrader
#28. I want to be happy; why do I do things that make me unhappy?
Paul Schrader
#29. 'Taxi Driver' wasn't autobiographical in terms of the actual events, but I did draw on my own mental state.
Paul Schrader
#30. I'm for fighting a war on terrorism, not a war in Southwest Asia that Alexander the Great couldn't win, the British Empire couldn't win, the Soviet Union couldn't win. That's stupid. It's a waste of resources; a waste of America's best and brightest.
Kurt Schrader
#31. Those artists who say that somehow therapy or analysis will thwart their creativity are completely misinformed. It's absolutely the opposite: it opens closed doors.
Paul Schrader
#32. I'm gonna drive until my buddies can't lift me in the car, and I'll get some younger buddies if I need to.
Ken Schrader
#33. You can't take contradiction away. Part of the fun of it is that the contradiction never really quite goes away.
Paul Schrader
#34. Ultimately, it's an illusion that you can understand yourself.
Paul Schrader
#35. You think it's a blessing to know what God wants?
Paul Schrader
#37. Now I see it clearly. My whole life has pointed in one direction. I see that now. There never has been any choice for me.
Paul Schrader
#38. In the ever-evolving society we live in, it is the responsibility of all of us, as individuals and as Americans, to rid ourselves of this culture of violence.
Kurt Schrader
#39. People who act against their own best interests are interesting characters.
Paul Schrader
#40. Twelve hours of work and I still can't sleep.Days go on and on... They don't end.
Paul Schrader
#41. I teach a course in screenwriting at Columbia, but I've never taken a course and I've never read a book about it!
Paul Schrader
