Quotes by Jonathan Demme

About Jonathan Demme:

Robert Jonathan Demme is an American filmmaker, producer and screenwriter. Demme rose to prominence in the 1980s with his comedy films Melvin and Howard (1980), Swing Shift (1984), Something Wild (1986) and Married to the Mob (1988). He became best known for directing The Silence of the Lambs (1991), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Director. He later directed the acclaimed films Philadelphia (1993) and Rachel Getting Married (2008).
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

I had very strong feelings, so the chance to make a film that deals in an imaginative way with stuff you care tremendously about is a real high. It's a really amazing thing to be able to do.

Jonathan Demme

I've been making films since the '70s and trying to develop that best possible fiction-film style that I feel is the most expressive. At a certain point, I felt I was winding up making the same film stylistically and I found that boring.

Jonathan Demme

It's such a rich experience when you enter into a subject from a documentary point of view. It's hard for fiction to compete with that.

Jonathan Demme

I've never fallen into what I consider to be a trap of trying to figure out something analytically that could be a very popular film. I would hope my enthusiasm could match up with something with that potential.

Jonathan Demme

I also feel that the only thing more gratifying than working with someone who you've worked well with is working with someone new and coming up with something great.

Jonathan Demme

I like finding a great shot and then just staying with it for a long time, not trying to pump things up with some kind of artificial energy by cutting.

Jonathan Demme

I don't think it's sacrilegious to remake any movie, including a good or even great movie.

Jonathan Demme

Everything I've made - it doesn't mean they've all been good - but everything I've made so far, big or little, fiction or documentary, has been something that I've been really enthusiastic about.

Jonathan Demme

Documentaries - my God, there is so much going on in our country and in the world today that every time you open the newspaper or turn on the radio or watch the news on TV there is another documentary subject. We're getting the headlines for a second...

Jonathan Demme

I'm of Neil Young's generation. Neil Young's songs have spoken to what it's like to be at least a white male of his generation over the years. Endlessly, he's sung about the stuff that I really care about. He's put into words the feelings that hit yo...

Jonathan Demme

I didn't go to film school so my learning was done out in public and showed up on the screen.

Jonathan Demme

I felt from time to time that shooting live music is the most purely cinematic thing you can do. Ideally, the cinema is becoming one with the music. There is little artifice involved. There's no acting. I love it.

Jonathan Demme

I love doing fiction. I love doing performance films and I love doing documentaries that don't have music. I love to shoot and I love to shoot things I'm enthusiastic about.

Jonathan Demme

As much as I love acoustic Neil Young - and I do deeply - I may be more passionate about the electric. Luckily it's not a contest, and we never have to make that choice. But Neil Young on an electric guitar - I feel like I've never seen or heard anyt...

Jonathan Demme

I love the idea of documentaries. I love seeing documentaries, and I love making them. Documentaries are incredibly easy to shoot. The ease with which you can hear something's going on, somebody's going to be somewhere: That sounds so interesting. Pi...

Jonathan Demme

As a kid, a little kid, I loved going to the movies, and now I love making movies.

Jonathan Demme

I don't think of Storefront Hitchcock or Stop Making Sense as documentaries, I think of them more as performance films.

Jonathan Demme

I was a sort of rock journalist - whatever that is - in London in the late '60s.

Jonathan Demme

I remember the Neil Young brand hitting me very hard immediately. He wasn't an acquired taste. I loved him immediately.

Jonathan Demme

Every film deserves its own unique look.

Jonathan Demme

Author Bio

  • NameJonathan Demme
  • DescriptionAmerican filmmaker, producer and screenwriter
  • AliasesRobert Jonathan Demme
  • BornFebruary 22, 1944
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionFilm Director; Film Producer; Screenwriter; Writer
  • AwardsAcademy Award For Best Director; Directors Guild Of America Award