Shane Carruth Quotes

Filmmaking is a thousand choices a day and it's important to just let those choices potentially be informed by something deeper.

I don't believe that narrative works when it's trying to teach a lesson or speak a factual truth.

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.

Pierrot le Fou is something I keep coming back to. Its so surreal but still really engaging - it proves narratives within narratives are a landscape that can be pursued well.

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.

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.

I don't spend a lot of time in nature. Probably less than most people that live in urban Texas.

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.

Everybody's saying we've got to go 3D or virtual reality or choose your own adventure. But there are other ways forward. I don't think we're done with film by a long shot.

I don't read books on how to write screenplays just because I'm stubborn. So it's all sort of made up.

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.

I am a control freak but it's important to feel strongly about the material you're working on.

The thing that is most important is to feel like you're at the front of the line, to be prime or primer. I definitely never wanted to say that in the films, but that's where it comes from.

Film is a collaborative process, absolutely, but I am a control freak.

I never got into 'MacGyver,' but 'All the President's Men' and 'The Conversation' were big for me.

All I know is that as an audience member, I am less and less inclined to go to the theater.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

My favorite films are the ones that I walk away from and I know I saw a story.

I love the concept of the romance that exists when people are broken. Like, the promise of a romance when you're at the bottom. I think that's infinitely compelling and romantic.

The only thing I can ever do is make a film that I can respond to. I could not make a romantic comedy for college girls. I wouldn't know how that works.