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
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
I mean, look, I love movies, not just the ones I make… In fact, I dont like the movies I make very much. – 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
When we can drain the Ocean into mill-ponds, and bottle up the Force of Gravity, to be sold by retail, in gas jars; then may we hope to comprehend the infinitudes of mans soul under formulas of Profit and Loss; and rule over this too, as over a patent engine, by checks, and valves, and balances. – Thomas Carlyle