Quotes by Terry Zwigoff

About Terry Zwigoff:

Terry Zwigoff is an American filmmaker whose work often deals with misfits, antiheroes, and themes of alienation.
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If I see my films described as 'quirky' or, even worse, 'snarky' one more time, I'm going to probably seriously consider an early retirement. All these years, I've labored under the conceit that they were "darkly humorous.'

Terry Zwigoff

It makes it difficult to decide which to go see, since no film about say, some tragic genocide in Africa is going to get a bad review even if it's poorly made.

Terry Zwigoff

That would be getting up at 5 am... I don't understand why film's shoot such brutal hours. I think it'd be worth it to not be so strictly cost-effective and have an 8 hour day. The film's would benefit in the end.

Terry Zwigoff

I was inspired to do anything I could to get out of what I was doing... today, I'm motivated to pay the bills.

Terry Zwigoff

Whereas my producer literally worked on this thing for 10 years and because I gave that presenter credit to David Lynch, she to this day never gets credit. It really kills me.

Terry Zwigoff

And I sense it was a rather constructed, almost half narrative fiction film in some ways. A lot of it was staged and manipulated to get those things in there that I knew to be strong.

Terry Zwigoff

The things I want to make into a film, they're personal, esoteric things, and I don't expect anyone else to like them as much as I do. I generally like my films more than anybody else will.

Terry Zwigoff

Oh yes, I've been approached to do all sorts of nonsense. How about a remake of 'West Side Story?'

Terry Zwigoff

People think I have an interest in comics, but I'm only interested in comics from the '40s, like 'Donald Duck' comics.

Terry Zwigoff

Chicago always hit me as such a gloomy place - I just remember all the snow getting dirty as soon as it would fall, all the decaying brown brick buildings around where we lived, all this soot all over the place.

Terry Zwigoff

I never saw a department store Santa as a kid. My mother was afraid to take me.

Terry Zwigoff

The films I want to make, I really want to be passionate about.

Terry Zwigoff

Saying that all documentaries are the same is like saying all foreign films are the same.

Terry Zwigoff

If I start paying attention to the mechanics of a film while watching it, then it's generally a bad film.

Terry Zwigoff

Certain types of films will never test well. My films never seem to test well.

Terry Zwigoff

I think the other misconceptions when the film came out, he was very upset that it was so widely released and so widely seen. And neither one of us - well, I think I had hopes it would be, 'cause I really did think it was something special.

Terry Zwigoff

Well, that was certainly - to me, until we could film in Charles' room, I didn't even want to bother filming anything else. And in fact, I did hold off and that was the first thing we filmed.

Terry Zwigoff

So I told Robert from the start that if we couldn't get Charles and Max to take part, but especially Charles, that I didn't want to make the film. So would he call his mother and talk to Charles and see if Charles would at all be interested.

Terry Zwigoff

One of the reasons I did 'Louie Bluie' and 'Crumb' with Criterion was because I like a lot of their older French films. That's the only reason. I watch these films by Jacques Becker and Jean-Pierre Melville. 'Touchez Pas Au Grisbi,' stuff like that. ...

Terry Zwigoff

My hat's off to documentary filmmakers. I don't know if I'm ever going back to it. You're treated like a second-class citizen at most film festivals. You take the bus while everybody else is flown first-class. If you're a feature film director, you'r...

Terry Zwigoff

When I went around promoting 'Crumb,' there would be days I'd wake up in, like, Houston or Cleveland, and I'd step outside the hotel and get no idea where I was. It all looks the same: one big corporate, consumer theme park. It's all, 'Here's the Sta...

Terry Zwigoff

Author Bio

  • NameTerry Zwigoff
  • DescriptionAmerican filmmaker
  • BornMay 18, 1949
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionFilm Director; Musician
  • AwardsDirectors Guild Of America Award