Terrence Malick Quotes

I have trouble working off things that are too preconceived, like storyboards.

- Terrence Malick

It was in Austin that I had the idea for 'Days of Heaven.' I found myself alone for a summer in the town I had left as a high school student. There were those green, undulating hills, and this very beautiful river, the Colorado. The place is inspired and inspiring.

- Terrence Malick

When people express what is most important to them, it often comes out in cliches. That doesn't make them laughable; it's something tender about them. As though in struggling to reach what's most personal about them they could only come up with what's most public.

- Terrence Malick

I was not a good teacher; I didn't have the sort of edge one should have on the students, so I decided to do something else.

- Terrence Malick

If you try to make things happen, they start to feel presented. They start to feel premeditated.

- Terrence Malick

I'd always liked movies in a kind of naive way. They seemed no less improbable a career than anything else.

- Terrence Malick

You can't live in Austin and escape the music.

- Terrence Malick

Nostalgia is a powerful feeling; it can drown out anything.

- Terrence Malick

I came to Los Angeles in the fall of 1969 to study at the AFI.

- Terrence Malick

I film quite a bit of footage, then edit. Changes before your eyes, things you can do and things you can't. My attitude is always 'let it keep rolling.'

- Terrence Malick

Martin Sheen was extraordinary. He's a very gifted man.

- Terrence Malick

When things become too prepared, the life comes out of it.

- Terrence Malick