Quotes from Sam Levinson

I don't even like getting my picture taken because I feel terrible about the way I look. I'm so self-conscious about things.

We as a country, our lust for entertainment has sort of superseded our sense of self-preservation.

I can't wake up every day and not thank Sundance. They're a great beacon of light for any independent film. Just to have a film that you made shown on a screen for an audience in a theater is beyond me, so I owe them everything in the world.

There's always certain actors that are interested in certain things and other actors who aren't.

So I think it's important to just keep in mind that the work doesn't end when the scene ends. You want to check on someone to make sure everyone's good, and also create an environment where everyone is rooting for one another.

I remember John Waters's 'Pink Flamingos,' that was the film where I realized you could do anything you want - there were no boundaries.

I don't really plan too much ahead when I write, because otherwise, I get kind of bored.

I've always wanted to write, I've always wanted to direct. The conscious decision was always to not be an actor.

I can only get to a certain point as I write and then I have individual conversations with everyone that I cast. I always do a rewrite based on the conversations.

I am always curious to sit down with the actor who's playing the part after the casting process and get to know them, get to understand their life a little bit more.

When we go to the cinema, we bring all of our preconceptions of actors with us.

I spent the majority of my teenage years in hospitals, rehabs and halfway houses.

But we're not this one stupid thing we said three years ago, or ten years ago, or even last week. We seem to judge people as if they are.

I was very sensitive, so when sensitivity has no place to go, it's often turned into anger or frustration.

If you look at 'Network' or any kind of satire, it's fundamentally unemotional in some ways.

When 60 - 70 percent of all interpersonal conversations and relationships exist through text messaging or social media, it's hard to get advice from a parent who didn't grow up in that world.

Sometimes you can just have a dialogue with an actor beforehand and shape the performance then, but other actors need more guidance on the set.

Anything can be taken out of context and anything you say or do is not necessarily an accurate reflection of who you are in your totality. There are small moments of your life that when taken into account with the rest of your life start to paint a picture.

I was never interested in acting on film or in television, but I was always more inclined to writing and directing, and the exploration of character.

I don't want to make a comfortable film. I'm not interested in that. I'm not interested in answering people's questions; I'm interested in posing questions. I'm interested in sparking a conversation between two people about what something means. That's enough for me, as a writer and as a director.

I don't design stories to fit some political ideology. I design stories about characters who I love and care about, while trying to make sense of an increasingly mad and toxic and insane world.

I think what's different about this time is that at least pre-Internet there were more similarities between one generation and the next. And now, I think that gap has grown in a very significant way.

I tend not to approach things intellectually at first. Maybe after the fact i can look at it and see ultimately what it's doing. I start with the characters and their inner lives.

Do I think that, when we're teaching a book at school, should we go through a myriad list of trigger warnings? No. But I understand why people desire it.