Alexander Payne

Quotations

  • “Marketing has supplanted story as the primary force behind the worthiness of making a film, and that’s a very sad thing. It’s film only as a function of consumerism rather than as an important component of our culture, and that’s everywhere around the world.” -Alexander Payne

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  • “When you’re a houseguest and you leave, it’s nice to straighten something up or send your hosts a useful gift. And when you leave the planet, it’s nice to have made a positive contribution.” -Alexander Payne

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  • “I guess maybe I try to make movies that are closer to real life than are many Hollywood movies. But I still try to stay within a commercial narrative, a contemporary American vernacular.” -Alexander Payne

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  • “I get asked, ‘How can you have such failures in your films?’ Well, what else is life about? There’s some sense of constant failure in something. Humor gives you a distance from it.” -Alexander Payne

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  • “Joe E. Lewis said, ‘Money doesn’t buy happiness but it calms the nerves.’ And that is how I feel about a film being well-received.” -Alexander Payne

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  • “Hollywood films have become a cesspool of formula and it’s up to us to try to change it… I feel like a preacher! But it’s really true. I feel personally responsible for the future of American cinema. Me personally.” -Alexander Payne

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  • “The biggest fear I have is to die with regrets, and of course that will come true.” -Alexander Payne

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  • “Anytime you cast a movie and you need someone famous in the lead part, you’re a prisoner of whoever happens to be famous in the six-month window in which you’re trying to get a film financed.” -Alexander Payne

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  • “I get asked, ‘How can you have such failures in your films?’ Well, what else is life about? There’s some sense of constant failure in something. Humor gives you a distance from it.” -Alexander Payne

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  • You just never know when you’re living in a golden age. – Alexander Payne

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