Quotes from Nicole Holofcener

Catherine Keener really gets me. She and I have such a shorthand together.

I think I'm a good writer. I think I have my own voice, which is unique to everyone - everyone has their own voice; if they would just write from a vulnerable embarrassing place, it's going to be universal, and it's going to be entertaining. Because everyone is the same, and everyone is unique.

If the script is right, I'm not above doing a movie with broad appeal.

If you keep the situations real, the characters' behavior will be real and honest, too. If they're suddenly robbing a bank and exchanging snappy dialogue, well, I wouldn't even know how to write that.

The fact that I get to write and direct my own personal story is an amazing thing.

I'll write a character with a certain actor in mind, but then once I start casting, I have to forget about who I pictured.

I always had good friends, but I did not feel like a cool girl, ever.

I think that sometimes, romantic comedies have to be really broad, and that the plot of people falling in and out of love or whatever is not enough. 'Enough Said' had that stuff, but I wanted it to be fun and funny while also grounded in reality.

I would still encourage somebody, if they wanted to make a movie, to just go take a movie camera. That's clearly been shown to work.

I'm sure it's more difficult for women to make movies, especially because, in general, the kind of movies women want to make aren't necessarily going to be blockbusters. But you know, there are so few women in so many positions of power.

It's harder to take care of kids than it is to make a movie.

If a woman gets insomnia, you never know where you're going to find her furniture the next morning. It's primal. We have so little we can control, but we can perfect the way our room looks.

My movies make a profit, but obviously not a fortune.

I don't think of myself in a political way, though I am definitely a feminist.

When I hear that a project takes place out of town, the material better be terrific, and it has to come at the right time. My kids are getting older, so it's getting easier, but being a mother - it's a difficult thing to juggle.

I'm willing to give up a little control but not a lot. So I say I want the money, but when push comes to shove, I'm not sure I'll be able to compromise in order to make the big studio movie. Maybe something in between would be okay, like a low-budget studio film.

I'm not a producer and I don't even know the places my producer goes to, thankfully.

I rarely need career advice because I don't have a career. No, that's not true. I can't really go far away while my kids are living with me.

I went to NYU for a year and a half, and I graduated from there and then years later went to Columbia for graduate school.

To say you want to be a director is to risk sounding obnoxious, pretentious, arrogant, and I think women are more fearful of sounding that way than men are.

I'm still shooting on low budgets, though none of my movies has lost money, and I rarely get sent anything that stars a guy or is a thriller or is seriously dramatic. And I would love the opportunity to do those things.

Hollywood is lacking realness in their female characters. I don't think I'm the only one who thinks that and wants to change it.

I hear people talk in my head, and I write it down. I choose where they live and how they dress to be real.

I'm a director, but I gotta have the hair, the makeup and the heels. My mother would be appalled if I didn't dress up.