Shane Carruth quotes

I believe that filmmakers have to internalize the story and subtext so well that all of the departments can start to speak to each other - that music can speak to cinematography can speak to writing and back again. (Shane Carruth)
I think I'll always want to write and direct. I'm interested in producing and helping other people tell stories. But I'm still in love with writing and directing. View quote
Shane Carruth
I've always been anxious about 'Primer.' There's good things about it, but all I've seen for a long time is the flaws. View quote
Shane Carruth
In school, when I got into upper-level math, there would be times when I would wake up from a dream and have - not an answer, exactly, but a direction to pursue. My writing has always been like that. I wake up from dreams knowing which direction to go in. View quote
Shane Carruth
Going to grocery stores is almost my favorite thing to do to calm myself down. There's something about just walking aisle after aisle making mundane choices. 'Do I want that? No, I want the one that has the low sodium.' And that feels like a good exercise to be doing when there isn't anything to be doing. It's like a kick-starter in some way. View quote
Shane Carruth
Many of my favorite films, if someone were to tell me simply what they're about, I probably wouldn't be that interested. Plot often has so little to do with what's at the heart of a film. View quote
Shane Carruth
'Pierrot le Fou' is something I keep coming back to. It's so surreal but still really engaging - it proves narratives within narratives are a landscape that can be pursued well. View quote
Shane Carruth
Probably the TV show I've watched the most is 'How It's Made' on the History Channel. I could watch 24 hours of 'How It's Made' and never get bored. Or 'Dirty Jobs' - that's even better! View quote
Shane Carruth
I don't believe that narrative works when it's trying to teach a lesson or speak a factual truth. View quote
Shane Carruth
Film is a collaborative process, absolutely, but I am a control freak. View quote
Shane Carruth
All I know is that as an audience member, I am less and less inclined to go to the theater. (Shane Carruth)
My favorite films are the ones that I walk away from and I know I saw a story. View quote
Shane Carruth
I got a degree in math, from not a good school in Texas, and then I went to work as a software engineer. Just not glamorous at all. View quote
Shane Carruth
When something is beautiful in math, everything is just perfectly lined up, and you see through sheer thought that something really beautiful can take place. View quote
Shane Carruth
I am obsessed with story. I had a late awakening in life. In college was the first time that I understood what you could do with a story and what a good novel is - literary value and subtext and irony and everything. View quote
Shane Carruth
I will be making films, and I'm going to keep working, no matter what I have to do. And I don't plan to ever ask for permission from anybody. View quote
Shane Carruth
Filmmaking is a thousand choices a day and it's important to just let those choices potentially be informed by something deeper. View quote
Shane Carruth
I feel like we want to compartmentalise things and say, 'Well, that's emotional, artistic and subjective, while this is intellectual, objective and measured.' I have difficulty thinking that's the way we experience things. View quote
Shane Carruth
I came to filmmaking because it's my passion. I decided I can't have it distorted or marred by someone else deciding what it should be. View quote
Shane Carruth
As a viewer, that's work I respond to - work that I know is singular in some way. If I'm being challenged by something on screen, if I don't quite know why it's happening, I want to know I can do the work of pulling it apart and that there'll be something satisfactory about it. If the architecture is sound, you can be lyrical in execution. View quote
Shane Carruth
I hate even the idea of a synopsis. When stories are really working, when you're providing subtextual exploration and things that are deeply layered, you're obligated to not say things out loud. (Shane Carruth)
I love to work. It's the idea of having someone else tell you how to make your film or how to sell it - that's the part I can't really deal with. I would rather do 1,000 things that are work than deal with one thing that's a political problem. View quote
Shane Carruth
I have a really, really hard time sitting down and watching a TV show, except I'm apparently willing to watch the same episode of 'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia,' like, seven times. View quote
Shane Carruth
I don't read books on how to write screenplays just because I'm stubborn. So it's all sort of made up. View quote
Shane Carruth
I don't want to be thought of as somebody who's spiritually ambiguous, but the reality is there's unknown things happening. I'm not ready to point at what they are or what the reason is, but I know they exist. View quote
Shane Carruth

Shane Carruth

Shane Carruth - Image
Photo: Jonathan Crow (Official website), CC BY-SA 2.0
Occupation: American Writer
Born: 1972
Quotes count: 26