Paul Haggis quotes

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. (Paul Haggis)

I am really drawn to damaged characters, and I have a lot of sympathy for them. Making those complicated characters empathetic is something to strive for. It's too easy to create a good guy or a good girl.

Paul Haggis

For me, the most interesting people are ones who often work against their best interests. Bad choices. They go in directions where you go, 'No no no nooo!' You push away someone who is trying to love you, you hurt someone who's trying to get your trust, or you love someone you shouldn't.

Paul Haggis

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

Paul Haggis

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

Paul Haggis

Film is an emotional medium; it's not a logical medium. It's not an intellectual medium, so every decision you make as a filmmaker and an actor has to be emotional in some way, even in the rejection of logic.

Paul Haggis

I'm such an antsy type of person. I can't write in a room without other people around. I write in coffee shops.

Paul Haggis

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

Paul Haggis

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

Paul Haggis

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.

Paul Haggis

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. (Paul Haggis)

I miss my mother very, very much.

Paul Haggis

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.

Paul Haggis

I like taking genres and subverting them. I did that with In the Valley of Elah. I said, "Okay, this is just a murder mystery. Relax." And then, two thirds of the way through, I broke every convention of a murder mystery.

Paul Haggis

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

Paul Haggis

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

Paul Haggis

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

Paul Haggis

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.

Paul Haggis