Xavier Dolan Quotes

Powerful Xavier Dolan for Daily Growth

It was a privilege to direct the music video for Adele's beautiful, heartbreaking song, 'Hello.' When I first heard it, all the images appeared clearly in my head - and her trust and generosity allowed me to work with abandon artistically and emotionally, like she always does. It made me extremely proud.

- Xavier Dolan

Trust, Heartbreaking, Direct, Generosity

I think of 'Mommy' as very simplistic or not simplistic, but I wish for the style to actually work with what you see onscreen and what you feel in that very moment. I hope we did not disrespect the characters by being too flamboyant when it's not necessary.

- Xavier Dolan

I Think, Very, Mommy, Flamboyant

My aunt Julie was a production manager, and she heard of an opening. Some show was looking for children to run around the house or whatever. I auditioned and got the part, and I showed up in all of my monstrous energy, bouncing everywhere like an electron.

- Xavier Dolan

Some, Production, Part, Monstrous

It's important to see how people see your work and how they feel about it. I know a lot of directors who are like, 'I never read reviews,' and I'm like, 'Yeah I can tell.'

- Xavier Dolan

Work, Like, Read, Reviews

We are all different human beings, and we all have different backgrounds, and we stem from different social strata. That is what defines how you hear people talk, how you want to quote them when you speak. We all have different fears and doubts and complexes and this is what shapes the way we see other people. Especially characters.

- Xavier Dolan

Other, Defines, Fears, Backgrounds

No one knows me in the States because the movies have been released in such an awkward, irregular fashion, all by different distributors. There is no continuity.

- Xavier Dolan

Been, Distributors, Continuity

I don't really mind not being a part of a film - because if there is no part for me, I will never force myself upon a film. I feel like it's just a distraction. If it is not organically incorporated into the story, it just feels like a stupid appearance, like a sort of wink. I hate that.

- Xavier Dolan

Stupid, Part, Feels, Wink

Cinema is a thankless industry where sometimes to appear on the cinematic scenery is a thing for late bloomers and people who are very patient. The places are accounted, and the space is often unwelcoming. Money is rare, and independent voices are muted by the almost complete absence of risk takers.

- Xavier Dolan

Independent, Very, Almost, Thankless

Film-making is not liberating. It drains a lot out of you, and it's fulfilling only temporarily. It's a very thankless thing at times. When you're spending all that time on a film, you don't want 40,000 people to see it - it's just not enough. You dream of more.

- Xavier Dolan

Out, Very, Lot, Thankless

When you're adapting, you are working on someone else's problem that they have already solved. The work has been fine-tuned and read countless times, and you're just arriving at the end and taking what you want, so of course it is the regal way to moviemaking. Plays are just the ideal scripts - the structure is there and waiting for you.

- Xavier Dolan

Waiting, Been, Solved, Adapting

Orson Welles was lazy. He was a late bloomer.

- Xavier Dolan

Lazy, Late, Late Bloomer, None

I feel like Adele is a diva. Not in the bad way. She is one of the greatest voices of this industry and of her own art. What she offers is so unique that she's risen to such a status that very few artists can enjoy.

- Xavier Dolan

Own, Bad, Very, Risen

For me, hipsterism is for one to appropriate the codes of a social class or another milieu that wasn't theirs originally, in order to define their personality through something different and unique. Which is why a lot of hipsters live downtown, and they're dressed as farmers. Then you have the Oscar Wilde hipster: the dandy.

- Xavier Dolan

Through, Appropriate, Codes, Wilde

Homosexuality is like an inside baseball thing. It's like a gag that people share; 'How is your husband?' But when it comes to bringing diversity to a broader audience, suddenly it's a different road. It's what we call 'a risk.' Isn't it our responsibility to elevate the standards and change people's perceptions?

- Xavier Dolan

Husband, Homosexuality, Your, Perceptions

The scene of independent cinema is already a large scene in America, and not in a negative way, but it's cluttered. It's very populated with just American films, so the room left for foreign movies is not extremely vast. The American public also does not really read. They don't read subtitles. But we're like that in Canada, too.

- Xavier Dolan

American, Independent, Very, Cluttered

What I'm interested in is how your career choices can affect your private life, romantically or with your mom, your relatives, your friends, your hometown, and how media manipulates information - not newspapers or blogs, but the magazines that people impulse-buy that tell you what's hot and who's not.

- Xavier Dolan

Career, Private, Affect, Relatives

For me, 'Mommy' was about developing very humane characters that would be very credible and endearing and work onscreen.

- Xavier Dolan

Very, Characters, Mommy, Endearing

My extreme characters are in a state of rebellion or who are being ostracized or being misunderstood, or misfits or trying to fit in and fighting for their rights to love, live, and co-exist. They sort of mirror my own demons.

- Xavier Dolan

Love, Mirror, Own, Misunderstood

Music was the only voice of cinema for a very long time before we had sound; it's organically linked to cinema itself.

- Xavier Dolan

Voice, Very, Very Long Time, Organically

Adele's look is meticulously thought through and completely of her own traits. She has such a powerful beauty, such an emotional voice, and the kohl, the hair, everything feels organically molded to her personality.

- Xavier Dolan

Voice, Through, Feels, Organically

When I saw Bryan Singer's 'Usual Suspects,' I knew how it was going to end because I'd seen 'Scary Movie.' Which is not the preferred order of things, but that's how it is because my childhood was 'Home Alone,' 'Matilda,' 'Batman Returns,' 'Jumanji,' 'Secret Garden,' 'Jack,' 'Mrs. Doubtfire,' 'Titanic.' Only family films from the '90s.

- Xavier Dolan

Singer, Movie, Secret, Garden

That I am today the face of Louis Vuitton almost seems like a twist of fate. You dream back to front, wanting the rewards before putting the work in. And then you work, get on with life, and just sometimes these childhood dreams have a way of catching up with you. This is a true privilege for which I am eternally grateful.

- Xavier Dolan

Fate, Wanting, Putting, Twist

Facts are, directors are not thinking of me; they think I only act in my films, because they're stupid. Or they think I'm a control freak, that I will try to, I don't know, pimp their scripts and just change everything, which I will never do.

- Xavier Dolan

Stupid, Facts, Directors, Scripts

I don't think the way I portray mother's and son's relationships has anything to do with my age or generation. It has to do with what I lived with my own mother and what it's transformed into and the point of view it has given me on mothers and women. The way I was brought up with women. It's all about personal background.

- Xavier Dolan

Point Of View, Own, Brought, Transformed

I hadn't watched any Hitchcock movies when I made 'Tom at the Farm,' except for 'Vertigo' when I was 8 years old. I don't have a sophisticated film knowledge, but I have seen the legacy of classic movies in broader entertainment.

- Xavier Dolan

Legacy, Sophisticated, Made, Broader

Of all the labels and tags and epithets people have forced upon me, there's one I don't dislike. I get called the 'enfant terrible.' In every article, it's always there. So I have to give that a meaning.

- Xavier Dolan

Give, Always, Forced, Article

I've fondly dreamed of becoming the face of an important brand since I was a child, in the same way that others dream of becoming an astronaut. I dreamed of this as I first and foremost dreamed of becoming an actor and would look up at these huge posters of celebrities while driving along motorways or crossing under bridges.

- Xavier Dolan

Becoming, Celebrities, While, Fondly

I love doing costumes. The costume is an actor's first line, so it's gotta be right!

- Xavier Dolan

Love, Doing, Line, Costume

I think great artists have no time to waste with having disproportionate egos and irrational requests. They're too focused on their work to actually lose themselves in hysterical spirals where they become monsters or tyrants.

- Xavier Dolan

I Think, No Time, Requests, Tyrants

I don't personally do movies for myself and a faction of very cerebral cinephiles - I do it for everybody and wish for the largest amount of people to relish whatever they find they can relish in.

- Xavier Dolan

Everybody, Very, Largest, Relish

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