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I'm attracted to short screenplays. Nobody really wants a film to be over two hours, or at least I don't.

Alexander Payne

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Alexander Payne
Age: 63
Born: 1961
Born: February 10
Film Director
Film Producer
Screenwriter
Writer
Omaha
Nebraska
Really
Attracted
Short
Nobody
Wants
Least
Hours
Film
Two
Screenplays

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My flag is always flying. My shingle is always out. I'm always looking for movie ideas. The hardest part of this whole movie-making endeavor is finding ideas. That's the real goal.
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I mean, look, I love movies, not just the ones I make... In fact, I don't like the movies I make very much.
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Even if we die at 100, we're still dying young. I want at least 700 years. There's a lot of travelling and books to read and movies to see. I'm not going to squeeze it all in in 85 years.
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A pitfall of making a comedy with a studio-and it's also an American cultural thing-is that I get tired of being encouraged to go always for laughs.
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If you have your movies so that everyone understands everything, I think that's probably not a very good movie.
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I don't want all of American cinema to be big cartoons that are just made to be digested by the entire world.
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I spend a long time casting, but once I've cast a film there's a reason why I selected those people. So I'm hands-on in selecting the cast, hands-off to see what they do with their characters, and hands-on again to offer suggestions.
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The actors are the greatest executors of tone in a film. They're the most important cinematic component.
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You just never know when you're living in a golden age.
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Forgiving yourself may be for many people, at least for myself, extremely difficult. And then in a larger context, I will say that I'm constantly astonished by those who pray daily, Forgive me my sins as I forgive those who sin against me, and beat very loudly the war drum.
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Somewhat dramatic things happen, and you don't even always notice them — that's what life is.
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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.
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I think that Peter Jennings is the only decent one of the big three.
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I'm hoping one day I can make one really good film.
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I want all of my films to belong to me.
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I've always approached screenplays and so forth with, How would it really happen? Not What's the movie version? but What's the real-life version? Then I just follow my nose.
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This is how good movies get made and always have: from the gut instinct of the financiers, not just by committee and research.
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My editor and I remain very disciplined. It's just sometimes when you're making a film, you get into the cutting room and you see a scene that's slowing you down in a certain section, but if you remove that scene then, emotionally or story-wise, another scene a half-hour later won't have the same impact. You just get stuck with it.
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The biggest fear I have is to die with regrets, and of course that will come true.
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The best cinema is about ethics.
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