A biography for Paul Thomas Andersonhasn’t been written yet.
“There's a lot for screenwriters to steal from songwriters, in terms of getting to the point.”
“I always had a dream about trying to make a movie that had no dialogue in it, that was just music and pictures. I still haven't done it yet, but I tried to get close in the beginning.”
“Of course, I'm no dummy.”
“No matter how many times you do it, you don't get used to the sadness - for me at least - of coming to the end of a film.”
“It's a gamble you take, the risk of alienating an audience. But there's a theory - sometimes it's better to confuse them for five minutes than let them get ahead of you for 10 seconds.”
“No, really. Just do it. You have some kind of weird reasons that are okay.”
“You know, I'm really not that competent at describing things musically.”
“I write from my stomach.”
“Acting is the hardest job in the entire world. By far. Harder than ditch digging.”
“I'll rebel against powers and principalities, all the time. Always, I will.”
“I actually enjoyed the struggles that we had trying to shape 'Blood', to get the pacing right, the rhythm of it.”
“As I have got older and become a father, there's less and less time for films.”
“I don't miss scenes at all the way that I used to miss them when I was younger making a film. It's actually quite fun to get rid of them now.”
“My writing has a lot to do with who I am, and what my life is like, and my relationships to people.”
“I have a feeling, one of those gut feelings, that I'll make pretty good movies the rest of my life.”
“I had never read Upton Sinclair. I didn't read 'The Jungle' in high school or anything like that. But it's pretty terrific writing.”
“How do I respond to criticism? Critically. I listen to all criticism critically.”
“I had the standard movie geek childhood, because for as long as I can remember, all I wanted to do was make movies.”
“I really subscribe to that old adage that you should never let the audience get ahead of you for a second. So if the film's abrasive and wrongfoots people then, y'know, that's great. But I hope it involves an audience.”
“You have to be a brat in order to carve out your parameters, and you have to be a monster to anyone who gets in your way. But sometimes it's difficult to know when that's necessary and when you're just being a baby, throwing your rattle from the cage.”