Dito Montiel

“You don't get many chances in life to make a movie, and if someone says they don't like it, I say, 'I do'. I've made records before, and if someone said it sucked, it bummed me out.”

“To me, the screenplay only becomes the Bible of the film after the actors have been cast. You go over the initial script with them and listen to the way they talk. Then you try to do a rewrite to accommodate them.”

“When I was a kid, I was into hardcore music. The scene in New York was tiny. Every person hanging out was in a band and played at the A7 Club. There was not much rehearsing or anything. Just doing.”

“One of my favorite movies that I've ever seen is '25th Hour.' I love it so much because it's simply about a guy who's going to jail for six years, and this slow, terrible day he has.”

“Life is tricky - you never know what's going to happen.”

“We were all the same. Kids from nowhere going nowhere. He always saw a light through the darkness. Knew the cracks let that light in, and that those cracks could suck you up.”

“Movies are weird; it's like trying to make a painting with one hundred people. It's a weird world, but every job is weird; it's always a little bit hard, crazy and fun, a nice combination.”

“It's weird: making a movie is like life compacted into three months. You have these very intense relationships with people, and you talk to them every day - your editor, the casting people, music people, your actors - then it ends. It's like a circus life.”

“Some people have this crazy talent that makes you tap into a human side as well, even with all their fame.”

“My mother left my father in their late 60s.”

“You make a movie, and if there's a red light flashing in the distance, everyone thinks that the director had a whole lot of money and a great idea that the red light means something. Then you say, 'Yeah, we couldn't afford to shut the red light off that was broken two blocks away.'”

“I don't ever take a break. I'm always writing.”

“I try not to read Google.”

“Whether I'm writing the script, or someone else writes the initial draft, I'm always an actor's director first. I always try to listen to them a lot and try to put their voices into their character.”

“take free food or tea from anyone talking about Godand find Heavenits gotta be out therefor there must be Godand how could any talk of good or God be wrong”

“If you're going to come wanting to work really hard, you're never going to bum me out.”

“At the end of the night they all seemed so happy. Maybe it was just because they hadn't seen each other in a while, but as they all gathered around hugging, kissing, and well-wishing each other, I found myself feeling for the first time in my life like maybe I'd missed out on something.”

“I have friends who have had PTSD, and you can get it from other things than war.”

“A story about my life should not be particularly interesting, but it is: it's just about me and some kids who didn't know how to talk to each other. It's personal but not autobiographical.”

“Sometimes I find some movies patronizing, which I feel is the ultimate crime.”