Paul Haggis Quotes

I don't think writers should write about answers. I think writers should write about questions.

As a general rule, I don't plan to travel with my Oscars, but we may have to make an exception.

We think we know what's right. With excessive pride comes blindness.

We're trying to reinvent Bond. He's 28 - no Q, no gadgets.

We crash into each other just so we can feel something.

I was in a cult for thirty-four years. Everyone else could see it. I don’t know why I couldn’t.

I don't think it's the job of filmmakers to give anybody answers. I do think, though, that a good film makes you ask questions of yourself as you leave the theatre.

I like to write about things about which I have no answers, questions that trouble me. These things trouble me.

You have to be careful of the advice you take.

You hear this story that we're all on the left, but when there's a demonstration, you count how many actors actually come out. If there's a half dozen, that would be a big day.

If you change the right mind, then that person can perhaps change the world.

Usually the characters are where I start. Then I continually ask myself, 'What's the worst thing that could happen to this character?'

Always write from your gut, no matter what the project is.

What I love about writing is the contradictions we all embody as human beings.

United States could be a great country. It needs to be a great country. It's our responsibility as citizens to make that happen, every single one of us.

You don't do pictures because the audience is ready for them. You do them because there's something gnawing at you, something inside.

I've lived in America for many years. I mean, I love being a Canadian, but I truly identify with America. I love America so much.

There's something that's so basically corrupt about any system in which a good and fair profit is not enough. There has to be more, every year, every quarter, because your stock price has to rise.

You don't make a film because the audience is ready for it. You make a film because you have questions that are in your gut.

It turns out that good actors can make anything believable.

It takes me awhile to find something that I'm passionate about. I'm reading a lot and thinking a lot, and torturing myself a lot because I'm feeling really guilty for not writing something today.

When we're threatened, it's very easy to appeal to our basic natures.

We never did just one take. Multiple takes. Many. I did a bunch. Sometimes I do one take. Sometimes I did 20.

As soon as you think you know Clint Eastwood, you don't know Clint Eastwood.

What happens when these young men and women come home so scarred and so wounded? We are ignoring that fact. We're just shoving them under the carpet.

There are very few guys like me. I make a lot of money. I didn't always.

Right after we invaded Iraq, I put a sign on my lawn that said "War is not the answer." That sign was either defaced, ripped up, or stolen every week. I had to replace that sign twelve times.

Every 10 years, I know less about love and relationships. The smarter I get, the less I know.

I try not to think of actors as I'm writing because I think you do them a disservice by writing for things they've already done.

I just love actors, and I've always loved actors. I empathize with their job. Everyone thinks it's easy, and it ain't. To be that vulnerable and brave on camera is tough.

I wanted to do a political film that is as nonpartisan as can be, because I wanted to do a story that was American. I wanted to tell an American tragedy.

I just always try to find an interesting story and tell it well. That's a hard enough thing to do, whether it's a piece of fiction or it's a small piece of reality. I just look for good story.

The wrong one will start saying things like "withdraw with honor." We've heard phrases like that before, and they led to thousands and thousands of deaths. Democrats always want to look tough.

Unless I'm really uneasy with what I'm writing, I lose interest very quickly.

This is our fault. My fault as much as the next man's, because even if I was against the war, I didn't do enough to stop it.

A creative person has to believe in the unseen and the untouched.

I’m a deeply broken person, and broken institutions fascinate me.

We all have these tendencies in us that could go this way or that. I think that's the real key in writing. To look at a character without judgment.

We give you characters we'd feel very comfortable judging, and then go: 'Oh yeah? Watch this'.

I miss my mother very, very much.

I was trying to talk about where we are right now as a society, and talk about the fear we all live in, and certainly since 9-11, how it's affected us and the world.

If you're in a relationship and you try to trust somebody who's completely untrustworthy, when trust is the basis of any relationship and everyone else says not to trust, is love transformative.

If you believe in someone enough, and you just don't stop believing in them, mo matter what, no matter how much they push you away, and no matter how often they prove they're only there to use you.

When I started to allow the characters to go where they wanted to go, I just had to follow.

I like to really respect the audience and let them come through on answers.

The stereotypes we pretend that we reject are ingrained in our DNA.