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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
Least
Hours
Film
Two
Screenplays
Really
Attracted
Short
Nobody
Wants

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What is filmmaking but groping in the dark?
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The kindest thing a director can do is look with open eyes at everything.
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There is an audience out there for literate films - slower, more observant, more human films, and they deserve to be made.
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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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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 cynicism lasts. Sentimentality ages, dates quickly.
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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.
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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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In a general sense, to convert any short story, novel, play, or opera into a movie, you have to re-rig it. Even though they're all narratives over time, they're very different forms.
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I like actors who, when you see them on screen, you sense a person, not just an actor.
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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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I like to think of film-making not just as an act of personal self-aggrandisement but rather as an act of public service.
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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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When I'm introduced as a two-time Oscar winner, I'm happy that a film of mine has found an audience and some acclaim because that keeps me in business. A filmmaker's greatest concern is the ability to make future films, so it helps keep me in business.
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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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Adult movies with any artistic credit are released in the last quarter of the year and expected to gird for battle for Globes and Oscars. So the films aren't being seen just for themselves, but rather in a competitive context.
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I don't feel despair because I am able to make the films I want to make, and that gives me hope.
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Acting is a lot easier than people think it is.
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A lot of documentaries have been made very quickly, but I think they're like frogs in an ecosystem: They're harbingers. Film is always two or three years behind, because it takes so long to write a script, get financing, and get it made. It just takes a while. But I think it's coming. It has to.
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The worst thing for people to say about your movies is, Yeah, it was pretty good, but it was too damn long..
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