Quotes from Kenneth Lonergan

I'm always struck when I go somewhere I've never been before, especially if it's in my home town, by just how different the atmosphere can be, and how disorienting it can be - especially if there's any kind of trouble.

Many movies about people recovering, moving on, and redeeming themselves are really wonderful and inspiring. But I think the more sentimental ones that are less good make me feel isolated - like, if you can't pull yourself up by your bootstraps like the guys in the movies, there is something wrong with you. That's a shame.

There are some situations in life that are simply not funny, and there's nothing funny about them, but they're rare, and they don't last all that long.

A really good comedy, I think, is played as if it was real, and it's the circumstances that make it amusing. And I think that the - the inverse or the reverse is true for drama.

I've done a lot of assignment work in my life, and the only way you can do it is to make it your own as quickly as possible, and then you give it back.

You're thinking about the physical consequences about what you're writing if you're going to direct it. If you're not going to direct it, then it's somebody else's problem, and they'll solve it.

Truthfully, and I don't mean to sound naive, but I don't know that much about the film business.

I'm always really interested in different environments and how they affect people's lives and what it would be like to live somewhere else.

There are a lot of elements when you're writing, or when I'm writing, that are sitting in the back of your mind. I try to let them stay there, because they find their way in more naturally that way.

There's a lot of pressure on a film set that's more immediate than the pressure in the theater where you're nervous about what's going to happen next week.

The creative process on 'Margaret' was incredibly satisfying. I loved the cast; I had a great time writing the script. I liked making the movie. Believe it or not, I actually like editing the movie. It was all the rest of it that was such a nightmare.

You can shoot a film in New York without seeing the Empire State Building. Or Starbucks... although the latter is much less realistic.

If you're going to make a statement, I think you should write it in prose and make a statement. If you have characters who are mouthpieces for a point of view, then you have to be very clever about disguising it.

Actors are very demanding because they have nowhere to hide. If I write a scene, it doesn't turn out very well, I don't ever have to show it to anyone; when you turn the camera on, or when you walk on stage, they have to feel like what's happening is real.

You discover two things when you're a teenager. One, that your parents are not the idols that you thought they were when you were growing up, if you had nice parents. And two, that you have power over them, and you can upset them and confront them and attack them.

I was nearly a teen-ager before I stopped assuming that everyone I met was Jewish.

When I walk onto a film set, I become frightened and nervous. There's all this equipment, all these people, and most of them do things you don't know how to do. I didn't come from a film background.

I wrote a play once called 'Lobby Hero,' which I thought turned out very well, but there's no final version of it. I published the one we produced, but there are seven other versions with different variations sitting in my desk at home.

I love accents, I love listening to people talk, I like to try to emulate it as accurately as I can.

I take it as a sign of intimacy and friendship when you feel comfortable enough with someone to have a little rough and tumble.