Charlie Kaufman Quotes

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Charlie Kaufman

Profession : Screenwriter

Birth : November 19, 1958

I have a tendency to hire people who tend to be unattractive to the studios. Maybe this is a bad idea.

Charlie Kaufman

The way I write is very much without kind of a goal. I have something I'm interested in and then I decide I'm going to explore it. I don't know where the characters are going to go, I don't know what the movie is going to do or what the screenplay is going to do. For me, that's the way to keep it alive.

Charlie Kaufman

My time on the set is the least of my involvement. Most of my time is in pre-production and post-production.

Charlie Kaufman

I'm interested in trying to explore what I think is the truth at a given time in my life, and part of the process of being honest is - in my mind - talking about the idea that you're watching a movie. You're sitting here watching a movie. And I like that. It appeals to me intellectually, and also in a way I can't even explain.

Charlie Kaufman

I have a lot of health anxiety.

Charlie Kaufman

It occurred to me that every work of art is a synecdoche, there's no way around it. Every creative work that someone does can only represent an aspect of the whole of something. I can't think of an exception to that.

Charlie Kaufman

I think that people have expectations of themselves and other people that are based on these fictions that are presented to them as the way human life and relationships could be, in some sort of weird, ideal world, but they never are. So you're constantly being shown this garbage and you can't get there.

Charlie Kaufman

I like actors - I used to be one.

Charlie Kaufman

I like titles that are a little difficult, because it's kind of counterintuitive.

Charlie Kaufman

I don't think screenwriting is therapeutic. It's actually really, really hard for me. It's not an enjoyable process.

Charlie Kaufman

I don't subscribe to anything. I sit there and I try to think about what seems honest to me.

Charlie Kaufman

Directing is a more pragmatic experience, where you have to deal with the restrictions of time and money that force you to make certain decisions you don't have to make when you're writing.

Charlie Kaufman

I try to make things interesting and thought-provoking.

Charlie Kaufman

I studied acting at Boston University. I was in the theater department there. Somewhere in there I decided that wasn't what I was going to do and I went to the B.F.A. film program at N.Y.U.

Charlie Kaufman

I have a personality that tends to be somewhat compulsive, and I do tend to think in a circular way. I dwell on the same things over and over and I try to figure out different ways of looking at the same issue.

Charlie Kaufman

I think you just assume that your memory is just sort of a video playback of your experience, but it's nothing like that at all. It's a complete refabrication of an event and a lot of it is made up, because you're filling in spaces.

Charlie Kaufman

As a kid, I had a background in theater.

Charlie Kaufman

We try to organize the world, which isn't organized the way our brains want to organize it. We tell stories about the people in our lives, we project ideas onto them. We project relationships with people, we make our lives into stories. I don't think we can avoid doing that.

Charlie Kaufman

When I'm writing, I'm trying to immerse myself in the chaos of an emotional experience, rather than separate myself from it and look back at it from a distance with clarity and tell it as a story. Because that's how life is lived, you know?

Charlie Kaufman

I want to create situations that give people something to think about.

Charlie Kaufman