Stephen Daldry quotes

Stephen Daldry is an English director and producer, acclaimed for his work in film, television, and theatre. His projects include notable works such as "Billy Elliot," "The Hours," and "The Crown." He has received multiple awards and nominations, establishing himself as a leading figure in the entertainment industry. Here are 33 of his quotes:

There has been one defining production for me in each decade.

Stephen Daldry

I never want to make a film. I don't wake up in the morning going, 'Ooh, I'd really love to be on set making a film today'. I'm aware that other contemporary film directors perceive film-making as what they do, as what they have to do. But I would hope that I am more catholic in my tastes.

Stephen Daldry

I've never been to Hollywood. I can count the number of times I've been to Los Angeles on my hands. I've never made a movie there and I've never been there for working reasons. The only reason to go there is for silly awards shows.

Stephen Daldry

They're a redefinition of boredom... the most important thing you need to know about an awards show is where is the nearest smoking opportunity.

Stephen Daldry

England is strictly class-based. What's surprising is how many films are still made with a load of people in silly frocks running around gardens and talking in middle-class accents.

Stephen Daldry

Every now and then I have to teach directing. The thing about the theatre is that the most important thing you can do as a director is to make sure that everybody is in the same world - you have to create the world and make sure everyone buys into it.

Stephen Daldry

I am, in fact, Superman. Every morning I wake up and go into a telephone booth and change my costume, and then go to work.

Stephen Daldry

One of the great joys of my job is that you spend a huge amount of time investigating different areas of literature.

Stephen Daldry

The really successful work in England tends to be working-class writers telling working-class stories. The film industry has been slow to wake up to that, for a variety of reasons. It still shocks me how few films are written or made in England about working-class life, given that those are the people who go to movies.

Stephen Daldry

I think it's absolutely fascinating that in Berlin the parliament can discuss actively the role of their soldiers in Afghanistan because is it still possible, literally, for a German soldier to take up arms.

Stephen Daldry

I categorically resist this idea that films are supposed to be autobiographical and the only stories you tell are about your own life.

Stephen Daldry

If I wanted to work financially, I would have made a series of different choices. I do get offered lots of movies which you could make a lot of money out of. And I always say, 'Why would I do that, when someone else could do it much better than me? Why would I want to do an action picture? Why?'

Stephen Daldry

There are a few writers that one has a relationship with that means, basically, you do whatever they say. One is Caryl Churchill, and the other is David Hare.

Stephen Daldry

Is it appropriate still for a German to have a gun? I only use that as an example of a country that's still deeply involved and engaged in the conversations about how to come to terms with the past. Certainly for that country, it's not forgotten.

Stephen Daldry

The great fun of doing new plays is that people have no idea what's going to happen next. That goes quite soon, as people start talking about it, and the only way you can keep hold of that is genuinely to keep changing it.

Stephen Daldry

I love changing. I hate it when people try to box me in to a relationship or in a work context. Any situation where I feel boxed in freaks me out. And I feel the need to reinvent myself or I'll get bored.

Stephen Daldry

As soon as I know how to do something, I usually get bored with it.

Stephen Daldry

I would love to do something for TV... I wanna do 'Kavalier & Clay' on HBO as an eight-parter. It'll be so much better as a series, honestly.

Stephen Daldry

I'm not really a director for hire. You read these scripts and go, 'This is a really great script, but Paul Greengrass would make this so much better than me.' I usually say, 'I know who would be good for this. It's not me.'

Stephen Daldry

Most theater methodology is predicated on the idea of repeated actions. That's what you work toward. Having the actor repeat the same moment eight times a week. In a film, it's getting that one moment right.

Stephen Daldry

I'm a theatre person, that's who I am. I'm happy to make sojourns into the world of movies but I'm basically a theatre director that potters off and does a couple of movies.

Stephen Daldry

I have never been motivated by money in my life. You can't make choices based on what the financial return might be.

Stephen Daldry