Anytime you cast a movie and you need someone famous in the lead part, youre a prisoner of whoever happens to be famous in the six-month window in which youre trying to get a film financed. – Alexander Payne
I dont feel despair because I am able to make the films I want to make, and that gives me hope. – Alexander Payne
Even if we die at 100, were still dying young. I want at least 700 years. Theres a lot of travelling and books to read and movies to see. Im not going to squeeze it all in in 85 years. – Alexander Payne
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