Quotes by Paul Schrader

About Paul Schrader:

Paul Joseph Schrader is an American screenwriter, film director, and film critic. Schrader wrote or cowrote screenplays for the Martin Scorsese classics Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and The Last Temptation of Christ and has directed 18 feature films, including his 1982 remake of the horror classic Cat People, and critically acclaimed dramas American Gigolo (1980), Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985), Affliction (1997) and Auto Focus (2002), as well as The Canyons (2013).
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

People who act against their own best interests are interesting characters.

Paul Schrader

I still think like a critic, and I still analyze films like a critic. However, it's not possible to write criticism if you're making films.

Paul Schrader

Those artists who say that somehow therapy or analysis will thwart their creativity are completely misinformed. It's absolutely the opposite: it opens closed doors.

Paul Schrader

Ultimately, it's an illusion that you can understand yourself.

Paul Schrader

I want to be happy; why do I do things that make me unhappy?

Paul Schrader

If you write interesting roles, you get interesting people to play them. If you write roles that are full of nuance and contradiction and have interesting dialog, actors are drawn to that.

Paul Schrader

I was raised as a Calvinist, which is doctrine-driven. And though there are many things wrong with Calvinism, you are at least encouraged to argue about things.

Paul Schrader

'Taxi Driver' wasn't autobiographical in terms of the actual events, but I did draw on my own mental state.

Paul Schrader

I teach a course in screenwriting at Columbia, but I've never taken a course and I've never read a book about it!

Paul Schrader

As screenwriters, we struggle with our own success. We have wallpapered our world and now we can't get anyone to notice the picture we just hung.

Paul Schrader

The only economic paradigm that movies have ever known is capitalism. There were no church sponsors or state patronage. The idea was that if you'd pay to see it, we'll make it for you.

Paul Schrader

Author Bio

  • NamePaul Schrader
  • DescriptionAmerican film director
  • BornJuly 22, 1946
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionScreenwriter; Film Director