Gus Van Sant quotes

The area of teenage life is not necessarily rarefied; we've all gone through that period. It's not as rarefied as a western or a space adventure or a gangster film, but it has its own dynamic. (Gus Van Sant)
I was once a shameless, full-time dope fiend. View quote
Gus Van Sant
Free time keeps me going. View quote
Gus Van Sant
Even if you try to copy a film shot by shot, you still can't. It's still your own film. View quote
Gus Van Sant
I'm thinking of remaking 'Psycho' again. Doing a third remake. The idea this time is to really change it - we're talking about doing a punk rocker setting. View quote
Gus Van Sant
Modern-day cinema takes the form of a sermon. You don't get to think, you only get to receive information. View quote
Gus Van Sant
For all the boredom the straight life brings, it's not too bad. View quote
Gus Van Sant
I'm normally drawn to something I haven't done and seen before. View quote
Gus Van Sant
When you get to be 23, 24 or 25, you start to freeze up and become an adult. View quote
Gus Van Sant
I think that in some cases, I've made films that have a sentimental quality, at least as part of the film. View quote
Gus Van Sant
Sometimes, the people who are helping you can drop the ball. (Gus Van Sant)
I have my ideas of what a good documentary is, but drama is a different animal because you're arranging everything. View quote
Gus Van Sant
I'm usually trying to react to what the actors are coming up with. And then the environment, and then the story. View quote
Gus Van Sant
Once you're directing, you're kind of in a certain mode, where you're taking whatever is on the page and forming it into the film that you think it might want to be. So whether it's my writing or not, I still try to work with it in the same way. View quote
Gus Van Sant
There is a common theme, though, in the stories I have told, which are usually associations of characters or families that are formed outside of a family circle. View quote
Gus Van Sant
Now the music industry is sort of like a Craigslist venture, right? Where you're making your own records and selling them online. View quote
Gus Van Sant
The rules of suspense are that you do know, and you just don't know when. In the Hitchcock rules of suspense, you are supposed to know that there is a bomb on the bus that might blow up, and then it becomes very tense - but if you don't know that there's a bomb and it just blows up, then it's just a surprise. View quote
Gus Van Sant
Wong Kar-Wai is a really great inspiration. He's always referred to as the Jimi Hendrix of filmmaking. View quote
Gus Van Sant
I've always been attracted to temporary families. View quote
Gus Van Sant
Yeah, I try to be really calm. View quote
Gus Van Sant
When I was 14, I felt very rundown; I had a home to go to, but I felt like I was 60 or something, older than I feel now. And I don't know if it's something that happens at 14, or whether it was adolescence or whether I was gay, or closeted gay, or whatever it was, I felt that. (Gus Van Sant)
The artist himself is actually the subject in everything after, say, 1900. Eventually, art becomes so removed from the community that you have to know about the artist before you can even look at the painting, because there is a conceptual idea going on. View quote
Gus Van Sant
With 'Good Will Hunting,' Miramax made certain the recruited audience wasn't expecting to laugh at Robin Williams like they normally do. From my limited experience, you can really blow test screenings by conducting them in the wrong way. View quote
Gus Van Sant
The dark comedies tend to be in a non-releasable area. There can be romantic comedies. There can be dramas. But there's no 'dark comedy' inbox for the advertising. View quote
Gus Van Sant
If it were up to the executives, they probably wouldn't have directors at all. View quote
Gus Van Sant