Jeff Nichols Quotes

I've been just unsuccessful enough not to have been given a big opportunity too soon.

- Jeff Nichols

Big, Been, Given, Big Opportunity

Steven Spielberg had a tremendous influence on me through his early stuff. 'E.T.', 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' - 'Jaws,' I think, is one of the most beautifully directed films ever.

- Jeff Nichols

Through, I Think, Had, Steven

I had two DVDs my junior year. One was 'Fletch' and one was 'Goodfellas,' and I watched those movies so much. I just remember eating Ramen noodles and watching 'Goodfellas.'

- Jeff Nichols

Year, Noodles, Junior Year, Junior

I'm really calculating when it comes to these scripts - I'm really calculated about character behavior and dialogue.

- Jeff Nichols

Character, Dialogue, About, Calculating

'Shotgun Stories' and 'Take Shelter'... I was willing to make those with no money and no time. With 'Mud,' I just wanted to protect it until I could have the resources. It's a real tricky movie.

- Jeff Nichols

Shelter, Stories, No Time, Shotgun

Financing for 'Shotgun Stories' was initiated with money from close friends and family. This is where the money to go into production came from. After production, a company called 'Upload Films' came on board and provided post-production funds and services. In both instances, people were taking a gamble on us.

- Jeff Nichols

Close Friends, Initiated, Shotgun

It took me a year just to edit 'Shotgun Stories.' Actually, it took me two years to edit 'Shotgun Stories.'

- Jeff Nichols

Stories, Actually, Took, Shotgun

When my son was 8 months old, he had a febrile seizure. You know, if you're in the first year - my wife and I refer to it as the 'darkness.' You're just underwater.

- Jeff Nichols

Year, Old, Months, Seizure

Your whole life is changed with that first child. Your social behaviors are all turned upside down, you're sleep deprived, but eight months in, my son had this seizure, and it just woke me up to the idea that, oh, no, this can end. And it can end in a way that will destroy you forever.

- Jeff Nichols

Idea, Woke, Turned, Seizure

I've kind of always had this balance between genre and personal dramas. It almost feels like the two help each other. If I was just to make a genre film, maybe it would be hollow and soulless. If I was just to make a personal drama, maybe it would be melodramatic and nobody would ever go see it.

- Jeff Nichols

Other, Feels, Almost, Dramas

I found filmmaking to be a very practical art form. It's about figuring out how to create within the very practical limitations/constraints of time, money, and large groups of collaborators.

- Jeff Nichols

Art, Very, Practical, Large Groups

My connection to 'Aquaman' came out through the Sony hack. It had no relationship to reality. I was not on that film. I was not hired to work on that film. I had been talking to Warner Bros. about it.

- Jeff Nichols

Through, Been, Warner Bros, Sony

I think Warner Bros. are probably some of the best people in marketing films in the world.

- Jeff Nichols

Think, Some, Films, Warner Bros

Write dialogue that supports the situation and the characters, as you find them.

- Jeff Nichols

Dialogue, Find, Characters, Supports

I think it's important to say typing in the computer is like the last, last phase of my writing process. That's kind of the fun part. Well, it's all somewhat fun, I suppose. But usually what happens is I think about a movie for at least a year - maybe a couple more - and I don't put anything down.

- Jeff Nichols

Movie, I Think, Couple, Writing Process

There's always somebody you can call and go have lunch with and just talk out an idea. And it's great, because I need that. It's part of my writing process, to early on sit people down and say, 'Alright, this film I'm working on...' and I tell them everything I have.

- Jeff Nichols

Lunch, Idea, Part, Writing Process

We've gotten to a point where it costs so much money to make a movie that directors and filmmakers feel they have to make sure that everybody gets it. And that's an unfortunate development, I think, in a lot of narratives floating around in the film industry.

- Jeff Nichols

Everybody, I Think, Gotten, So Much Money

If I can drive down the road in my car and listen to XM satellite, and when a song gets beamed into my car, it can tell me who wrote the song and what the damn lyrics are, why, when you broadcast a digital signal of a film, can't it speak to your television to set up a list of settings to show the film in the way that it was meant to be shown?

- Jeff Nichols

Tell, Show, Broadcast, Signal

I think plot is very overrated. Plot is obviously necessary, but what I really care about is emotionally affecting the audience. Having a thought myself and then an emotional experience myself, somehow transferring that to the audience.

- Jeff Nichols

Think, Audience, Very, Overrated

You have actors you've worked with previously, and you have actors you haven't worked with that you've seen in things where you know they can work in these parts. And then there are actors who blow you away, who surprise you.

- Jeff Nichols

Work, Surprise, Away, Blow

My characters are not thinking about the act breaks. They're thinking about what they need to do to move forward. As long as I focus on that, the story starts to progress. As soon as I think, 'We're 20 pages in, something better blow up,' we're in trouble.

- Jeff Nichols

Focus, I Think, About, Blow

I like scripts. I spend a lot of time writing them.

- Jeff Nichols

Like, Lot, Spend, Scripts

I think too often in films, people think endings are a summation of plot, and I don't like that. Because once you know where you're going as an audience member, then it's like a video game. You're just waiting for them to get through the levels and beat the bad guy. And I just think that's boring.

- Jeff Nichols

Game, Through, I Think, Endings

I don't think 'Shotgon Stories' or 'Take Shelter' have hopeless endings. I think there's hope in both those films, no matter how hard you have to search for it. It's there.

- Jeff Nichols

Think, I Think, Films, Endings

Endings don't have anything to do with what your movie is about. Now, there is an emotional climax, there's an emotional resolution that is 100 percent important. If I get that wrong, get your money back.

- Jeff Nichols

Emotional, Movie, About, Endings

We have so many films that we can fit into the slate a year, and we spend $100 million on those films in order to make $400 million dollars. We don't spend $20 million in hopes of eking out $40 million.

- Jeff Nichols

Year, Dollars, Films, Million Dollars

The more we try to control our kids and create who they are and where they're going, the more that will fall apart. That's a dangerous thing. So you need to actually manage the fear and figure out who your kids are. Who do they want to be and how can you help shape that, but not control it.

- Jeff Nichols

Dangerous, Your, Our, Manage

Most film productions, when they're based at a place, they get, like, a 30-mile radius or a 30-minute radius to get out of the town. And once you go past that, your day starts to become shorter, and you have to start paying your drivers more, and everybody just gets paid more, and you have less time to shoot, and everything costs more.

- Jeff Nichols

Out, Everybody, Your, Drivers

'Midnight Special' is, like 'Starman', a government chase film - in the government chase film genre - about a boy who has special powers and the government agents' quest to find him.

- Jeff Nichols

Midnight, Like, About, Agents

You can watch any Hitchcock film and be blown away.

- Jeff Nichols

Watch, Film, Away, Blown Away

In terms of my personal spirituality and everything else, it's ever-evolving. I have a desire to want more out of the universe. But the older I get, the further I get from any specifics about that.

- Jeff Nichols

Desire, Want, More, Everything Else

My stated goal as a filmmaker is to feel something. Is to have a palpable emotion in my life, carry it through the gauntlet of the filmmaking process and try and have it land for an audience at some point during the viewing experience. That to me is successful filmmaking.

- Jeff Nichols

My Life, Through, Some, Filmmaking Process

The films that have influenced me most are: 'The Hustler', 'Badlands', 'Hud', 'Tender Mercies', 'Cool Hand Luke', 'A Perfect World', and 'Laurence of Arabia'. I also really like 'Fletch'. I feel like all of these films reached an honest place in regard to the human condition while also stringing together really entertaining stories.

- Jeff Nichols

Perfect, Human Condition, Perfect World

I'll say this: I think from a directing standpoint, 'Loving' is my most accomplished film. Strictly from a technical, directing point of view.

- Jeff Nichols

Think, I Think, Technical, Standpoint

I first read 'Tom Sawyer' when I was in 8th grade, 13 years old. I realised since that Mark Twain just bottled what it felt like to be a child.

- Jeff Nichols

Like, Read, Realised, Bottled

When I saw the scene in 'Close Encounters,' and Richard Dreyfuss's son is screaming at him - that's a heartbreaking scene. And I remember being devastated by 'E.T.' Or when E.T. started to get sick. That broke me up a little bit.

- Jeff Nichols

I Remember, Heartbreaking, Devastated

I've been really lucky when it comes to casting kids, and I don't particularly like child actors. Too often, they just show up, and they've had whatever real innocence that's in a child just beaten out of them. They start to perform for you, and you can just see it coming. It's no good.

- Jeff Nichols

Lucky, Innocence, Been, Child Actors

My characters aren't chess pieces. I don't move them around some big board. I actually care about these fictitious people.

- Jeff Nichols

Big, Some, Move, Board

I love 'Lawrence of Arabia,' big sweeping films. I want my films to feel that way, to be on a big canvas.

- Jeff Nichols

Love, Big, Films, Lawrence

I am not going to approve the home-screening format for my film just carte blanche in lieu of a theatrical screening when I cannot trust that it will ever be seen in the format that it's intended to be.

- Jeff Nichols

Trust, Theatrical, Screening, Approve

I'd love to just continue making original films from scratch, but it doesn't mean I won't try my hand at something else in the meantime.

- Jeff Nichols

Love, Making, Films, Meantime

What Richard and Mildred Loving did was, by their nature, not by any calculus, they separated themselves from the political conversation. They did not have an agenda. They did not want to be martyrs. They did not want to be symbols of a movement.

- Jeff Nichols

Nature, Want, Richard, Conversation

We have a problem with dealing with race in our country. We have a problem with dealing with marriage equality and equality in general. These are complex, divisive issues in our society, and I think that the only way we further this conversation is to take them down to a very human scale.

- Jeff Nichols

Country, Very, Divisive, Conversation

I was always interested in creative writing growing up. From junior high on, I was writing short stories. I also grew up watching movies. My father would take me to everything. Most weeks, I could open the paper having seen every movie listed.

- Jeff Nichols

Father, Movie, Weeks, Listed

I grew up in Arkansas, and I went to Little Rock Central High, which was the site of a desegregation crisis in '57. I graduated in '97.

- Jeff Nichols

Crisis, Which, Arkansas, Graduated

There's one right place to put the camera. I'm a big believer in that. You'd think you could put it anywhere. Nope.

- Jeff Nichols

Think, Right Place, Big, Camera

I'm not as worried about the process of writing, simply because I think I've got that one down, you know? I think I know what brings specificity to these ideas, what brings specificity to the genre elements, or anything else, and it's personal emotions.

- Jeff Nichols

I Think, Got, About, Worried

If you want someone to show up and execute your script for you, seriously, there are a lot of great people out there. Don't call me.

- Jeff Nichols

Want, Show, Your, Great People

It takes people being alone in front of the computer at three in the morning to write opinions about movies, apparently.

- Jeff Nichols

People, About, Being, Being Alone

Nature is the purest thing we can touch and observe. It can be the most beautiful and also the most devastating.

- Jeff Nichols

Nature, Beautiful, Most, Purest

I thought 'Mud' would be such an easy film for people to understand.

- Jeff Nichols

Thought, Understand, Would, Mud

I wrote 'Mud' for Matthew McConaughey and had never met him.

- Jeff Nichols

Never, Matthew, Wrote, Mud

'Mud' was a depository for a little more nostalgia and just a different kind of feeling, a different kind of mood. Something that's not so dark. Something that does actually have a happy ending and is a little more hopeful.

- Jeff Nichols

Nostalgia, Mood, More, Mud

A lot of people have a belief system that is strictly based on religious dogma.

- Jeff Nichols

Religious, Lot, Based, Strictly

'Indiana Jones' was me growing up. I could quote lines from 'Tango and Cash' as much as I could quote lines from 'The Searchers'.

- Jeff Nichols

Growing, Could, Searchers, Cash

Definitely when you give a script to an actor, it's like dropping a capsule in water and the fizzing starts. That's when the thing starts to live and breathe.

- Jeff Nichols

Give, Like, Dropping, Breathe

I think we're so advanced when it comes to watching narrative material. I mean, it's all we do is consume content all day long. So when a character walks onscreen, you immediately start making connections for that character: Is that a good guy? Is that a bad guy?

- Jeff Nichols

Bad, I Think, Advanced, Good Guy

I'm a director because I directed a movie. And if I have any advice for people, it's, 'Go write something; go direct it. If that's what you have a desire to do, go do it. If the movie stinks, just put it on the shelf and try to do it again.'

- Jeff Nichols

Desire, Movie, Directed, Shelf

I care about narrative structure; I care about how stories unfold.

- Jeff Nichols

How, Stories, I Care, Structure

I think when you're talking about marriage equality and race, people very quickly start to get into their political corners: their ideology comes to the forefront, and they get into this platform argument that they're used to making, which really doesn't have anything to do with the day-to-day basics of what is being talked about.

- Jeff Nichols

Basics, Argument, Very, Forefront

There's a rhythm and a cadence in a scene, and when an actor understands without any real direction from you, then that's a very valuable gift. And some people get it, and some people don't.

- Jeff Nichols

Gift, Some, Very, Understands

My first job in the film business was working as a production assistant, and then a production manager on a documentary about Townes Van Zandt.

- Jeff Nichols

Business, Van, Film Business, First Job

The real cost is always more than just the money you shell out.

- Jeff Nichols

Money, Cost, Always, Shell

I loved, in 'Starman', the use of anamorphic lenses, the creation of blue light, and Carpenter's use of the widescreen format.

- Jeff Nichols

Blue, Loved, Lenses, Creation

I outline and outline and outline, and then I'm very specific about the stuff I write. That's my process.

- Jeff Nichols

Process, Very, I Write, Outline

I have gained a lot of confidence in my process of making films. It does't mean I'll make a successful film or even a good film, but I know how to make my film.

- Jeff Nichols

Process, Making, Films, Gained

Whenever I write, I try and approach my stories from some kind of universal theme or idea or emotion.

- Jeff Nichols

Some, Stories, I Write, Universal

Sometimes as writers, we try and put narrative development above character development. We try to move our characters around like chess pieces that do our bidding. The problem with that is sometimes the characters do things they shouldn't do. Things that are inorganic.

- Jeff Nichols

Chess, Development, Move, The Problem With

As a storyteller, you have to have something to say. You have to look at the world, think about it in relationship to yourself, and say, 'I think this is a pattern,' or 'I think this is the way fatherhood works,' or 'I think this is the way first love feels.' The danger in that is, that's when you open yourself up to real critique.

- Jeff Nichols

Love, I Think, Feels, First Love

I think the way you make a movie dictates the movie that you make.

- Jeff Nichols

Think, Movie, I Think, Dictates

Your reaction when you lose control in a situation is to try and hang on tighter.

- Jeff Nichols

Lose, Reaction, Hang, Situation

Marriage isn't about a collection of scenes over ten years of two people telling each other that they love each other. It's about commitment.

- Jeff Nichols

Love, Over, Telling, Scenes

A lot of independent filmmakers are really catty.

- Jeff Nichols

Independent, Catty, Lot, Filmmakers

I've only seen one snake out in the wilderness, not behind glass, and I froze. I literally couldn't move. So to say I have a fear of snakes would be true.

- Jeff Nichols

Behind, Glass, Move, Snakes

There's a reason why I use film. It's because it's the best representation of how our eyes work. I really believe that. I think it's better than digital.

- Jeff Nichols

Think, Reason, Digital, Representation

I think only the movies you do remember are the films you had an emotional connection to.

- Jeff Nichols

Remember, Movies, Think, Connection

I'll be honest: 'Badlands' changed my life: it really did rewire my brain as to how film can operate.

- Jeff Nichols

Brain, My Life, Film, Operate

Actors are real. It's a real skill, and it exists, and talent really exists.

- Jeff Nichols

Talent, Real, Exists, Skill

I think I could probably make $5 to $10m movies for a very long time and live a perfectly good life doing it. I'd probably get paid as well as a surgeon, which is pretty damn remarkable for a guy who went to film school.

- Jeff Nichols

Doing, Very, Film School, Paid

Making movies is really hard. It's a very complex process, with many, many variables.

- Jeff Nichols

Movies, Making, Very, Variables

One of my favorite directors is Clint Eastwood, and I hear about the way he works, and I think I'm of a similar style. Very few takes - you get what you take, and you move on. It's very much a job and work.

- Jeff Nichols

I Think, Very, Eastwood, Move On

People ask me about past projects I've worked on, and other things; I'm just really bad at lying. I have a bad poker face, so I just try to tell people how I'm feeling in the moment and really what I was trying to do.

- Jeff Nichols

Bad, Other, Projects, Lying

I want all of my films to be grounded in reality, and I think 'Midnight Special' is the most grounded film I've ever made, in spite of its genre.

- Jeff Nichols

Think, Midnight, Films, Genre

There are great advantages of making things on the independent market. There's freedom and control there, and kind of a cleanness to the process that I like.

- Jeff Nichols

Process, Independent, Making, Advantages

I have a very linear mind.

- Jeff Nichols

Mind, Very, Linear

With 'Midnight Special,' the sound was used as a narrative construct. The audience is looking in one direction when a sound suddenly erupts from the other direction.

- Jeff Nichols

Audience, Other, Midnight, Suddenly

Sometimes you'll write while listening to a piece of music and think it's great, but then you'll go back and read it without the music and go, 'This sucks.'

- Jeff Nichols

Listening, Think, Read, Sucks

The funny thing about 'Take Shelter' is that a lot of people talk about how it was allegory for the economy and things that were to happen. And that was so on the nose in the movie for me. I was like, 'That's obvious.' It's the other stuff about marriage and commitment and those other things that I spent the most time thinking about.

- Jeff Nichols

Movie, Other, Shelter, Obvious

Marriage is tough. I can tell my wife all day long that I love her, but it doesn't mean anything if you don't show that.

- Jeff Nichols

Love, Wife, Tell, All Day

'Take Shelter' is a tough movie because there's no humor in it, so there's really no way to judge how you're doing - whether people are still with you or not.

- Jeff Nichols

Doing, Shelter, Still, Judge

It's amazing how far you can get into a plot before you figure out what you're doing.

- Jeff Nichols

Doing, How Far, Figure, Plot

I really don't care about plot. I really, really don't.

- Jeff Nichols

Care, About, Really, Plot

I can talk to execs very clearly, very plainly. I don't get nervous in front of them anymore.

- Jeff Nichols

Clearly, Very, Them, Plainly

As a director, you see something in someone; you know it's there, you just got to go get it. You do that with any actor. That's your job.

- Jeff Nichols

Go, Got, Your, Director

I know how to write a movie. I know how to direct a movie.

- Jeff Nichols

Know, How, Movie, Direct

I really don't know how to tell you what it feels like to be a parent.

- Jeff Nichols

How, Like, Feels, Parent

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