the watch of time

Taking Charge – in directly:

(a) “Why did I direct twenty-one pictures? Because I wanted to control every aspect of my own movies, and have a great time making them…  I had a good time making ‘em, but I still had to deal with all kinds of vagaries of weather and sound and crew and actors.  It doesn’t have the purity of simply painting a picture, composing a song, or sculpting, or writing.  That’s something you do all by yourself.”

(b) “You have to enjoy your own company, and the solitude that’s necessary to hatch an idea and dwell on it and go back and forth in your mind, sometimes for months – and then you have to also enjoy stepping out on stage, which is what happens when you walk out onto a set, and a hundred people are there, and they’re saying, ‘What shall we do today?’  You have to entertain them, in a way.  You have to motivate them.  You have to try to make them creative as a group.”

(c) “I never had any interest in directing, from the very, very beginning. First of all, I don’t like being on the soundstage.  I find it very boring.  I’ve done my work, for the most part.

I don’t know what actors want; I don’t know what they mean…  It’s just in a work situation.  I have no idea how to please them.

I don’t know why directors want to be directors.  I don’t think it’s a good job.  I never did. And I think most of them are not very happy people – not that writers are, because we know writers aren’t happy – but I think directors go through a lot…”

Excerpted quotes from (a) Larry Cohen & (b) Paul Schrader & (c) William Goldman

           Tales from the Script (2010)