Quotes from Paul Thomas Anderson

Acting is the hardest job in the entire world. By far. Harder than ditch digging.

I didn't have any desire I might have had 10 years ago to shoot every single word that I wrote.

Film school is a complete con, because the information is there if you want it.

Screenwriting is like ironing. You move forward a little bit and go back and smooth things out.

The films that I love are very straightforward stories, like really old-fashioned stuff.

I don't miss scenes at all the way that I used to miss them when I was younger making a film. It's actually quite fun to get rid of them now.

My older sister was at the cusp of new wave, and I had older brothers from my father's first marriage who were rock 'n' roll guys, so I was exposed to a lot of popular culture.

You know, I'm really not that competent at describing things musically.

I had the standard movie geek childhood, because for as long as I can remember, all I wanted to do was make movies.

There's a lot for screenwriters to steal from songwriters, in terms of getting to the point.

Well I'd really love to work with Robert De Niro, because he's still the most talented actor out there.

I write from my stomach.

I actually enjoyed the struggles that we had trying to shape 'Blood', to get the pacing right, the rhythm of it.

I really subscribe to that old adage that you should never let the audience get ahead of you for a second. So if the film's abrasive and wrongfoots people then, y'know, that's great. But I hope it involves an audience.

I don't want to be the angry guy.

My dad was this sort of avant-garde guy who did all kinds of weird things. He was a true original and anybody who met him never forgot him.

I don't think the competition's so rough, within the majority of movies made in Hollywood.

I have a feeling, one of those gut feelings, that I'll make pretty good movies the rest of my life.

My dad was this sort of avant-garde guy who did all kinds of weird things. He was a true original and anybody who met him never forgot him.

It felt like the first thing, but when I first started out, I got a job adapting a book by Russell Banks called 'Rule Of The Bone.' I didn't do a very good job. I didn't really know what I was doing in general, let alone how to adapt a book.

My older sister was at the cusp of new wave, and I had older brothers from my father's first marriage who were rock 'n' roll guys, so I was exposed to a lot of popular culture.

I don't get a sense of American pride. I just get a sense that everyone is here, battling the same thing - that around the world everybody's after the same thing, just some minor piece of happiness each day.

I really subscribe to that old adage that you should never let the audience get ahead of you for a second. So if the film's abrasive and wrongfoots people then, y'know, that's great. But I hope it involves an audience.

Kill your television!