I get asked, How can you have such failures in your films? Well, what else is life about? Theres some sense of constant failure in something. Humor gives you a distance from it. – Alexander Payne
The novel succeeds on terms exclusive to literature. A good film succeeds on terms exclusive to the cinema. Thats why so many bad novels can become good movies, like Jaws or The Godfather. – 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
There comes a point in your moviegoing life where you look at the screen and then you look at the world and you ask, What is going on? You want the movies to show you the chaos and mess and risk and failure that are normal for a lot of us. Generally, the movies hide all of that. – Wesley Morris