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I don't write [screenplay character] biographies beforehand. I usually go in knowing some sequences: this is where I want to start, this is where I want to end.

John Sayles

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John Sayles
Age: 74
Born: 1950
Born: September 28
Actor
Film Director
Film Editor
Film Producer
Screenwriter
Writer
Schenectady
New York
John Thomas Sayles
Crafts
Usually
Knowing
Sequences
Start
Beforehand
Write
Screenplay
Screenplays
Ends
Biographies
Character
Sequence
Writing

More quotes by John Sayles

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America is a very divided country now. Not only are there red states and blue states, there are now red facts and blue facts. The right-wing believe in creationism. The left in evolution.
John Sayles
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To this day, I get rewrite offers where they say: 'We feel this script needs work with character, dialogue, plot and tone,' and when you ask what's left, they say: 'Well, the typing is very good.'
John Sayles
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I've always got five or six things that would either make a good feature or TV show. And you just never know. You go and you pitch and it may be exactly what they're looking for, or they may stop you after two sentences and say, Oh, we've already done something just like that.
John Sayles
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I like to act. I work for scale. I don't have an acting agent. I'm in the book.
John Sayles
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Fahrenheit 9/11 took public domain information that should have been on the news every night and put it in a film that a lot of people went to see. But still Bush has never had to answer those charges.
John Sayles
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I probably wouldn't have done as many as I did in one year, which I did when I was trying to raise money.
John Sayles
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The less money and time you have, the more you haveto plan ahead and be careful about your coverage. It's like a gas:it expands or contracts depending on the size of the container.
John Sayles
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I'm never at a loss for new projects.
John Sayles
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For me the writing, when I'm going to direct it myself, is really just the first draft, and I don't change it very much I only change it on average about two lines per movie.
John Sayles
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I made it about a three-day weekend so people wouldn't have to change their clothes a lot. We didn't have an art department we didn't have a make-up department.
John Sayles
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Not that I've always loved the movie when they finally come out, or if they ever come out-because many of them don't come out-but I've gotten to work with really good story editors and stuff like that.
John Sayles
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I don't have a social agenda. I just don't choose to ignore what's in front of me.
John Sayles
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Basically, if you could get a good trailer out of the script, Roger had no objection to you making a really good movie. He liked it if you did. He liked the more cleverness and ingenuity you could bring to it. He just wasn't going to give you any more money.
John Sayles
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There are very few distributors left to do off-Hollywood movies, and those distributors generally have got thousands of movies to choose from. So you're pretty lucky if you get one to even take your movie and it's pretty rare that they pay anything upfront.
John Sayles
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Well, acting is cheap I knew all these actors who weren't in the Screen Actors Guild yet, and it happened that they were all just about thirty years old.
John Sayles
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I never actually do rehearsals. That's one of the reasons that I write those bios and if I can meet with the actors I'll meet them or talk to them on the phone. What I want is for them to come on set knowing their lines and knowing who the character is.
John Sayles
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There were not fifteen people in the story department and twenty-five producers and stuff. And Roger had produced 1,000 movies and directed a couple of hundred, and their comments were always very, very specific.
John Sayles
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But compared to writing a novel, where you can be God, I did the Bay of Pigs invasion in six pages once, and there were 50,000 guys with boots that I didn't have to pay, and all those extras we didn't have to pay them.
John Sayles
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In a movie you have all these logistical problems all these practical problems. But you're also going to have people come who can do things that you can't do, and you get to direct their talents.
John Sayles
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I see very small movies being financed by crowdfunding. If you're a well-known actor or celebrity of some sort, you can probably raise between one and two million. I don't have that kind of cult [following].
John Sayles