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
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
Joe E. Lewis said, Money doesnt buy happiness but it calms the nerves. And that is how I feel about a film being well-received. – Alexander Payne
Each one of my movies becomes easier to get off the ground. – Alexander Payne
The cardinal sin in sports, what could really wreck it, is not cheating to win, which has gone on forever, but cheating to lose. That threatens a fundamental aspect of sports appeal, which is their spontaneity. If games are fixed, theyre no different from movies theyre scripted. – Michael Mandelbaum