Paul Haggis Quotes

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Paul Haggis

Profession : Director

Birth : March 10, 1953

Even in a comedy, you have to make people feel. You have to put your hand inside their soul and twist out their heart.

Paul Haggis

I don't pay much attention to the press. My films always get good reviews and bad reviews. I just try to make the best film I can.

Paul Haggis

You have to have empathy, knowledge and compassion for your characters if you're a writer.

Paul Haggis

There's nothing more painful than writing.

Paul Haggis

The great majority of Scientologists I know are good people who are genuinely interested in improving conditions on this planet and helping others.

Paul Haggis

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

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

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

I just love actors, and I've always loved actors. I empathize with their job. Everyone thinks it's easy, and it ain't. To be that vulnerable and brave on camera is tough. The more they reveal themselves, the more we love them, but there's a lot of truth in what they're showing.

Paul Haggis

In Scientology, in the Ethics Conditions, as you go down from Normal through Doubt, then you get to Enemy, and, finally, near the bottom, there is Treason.

Paul Haggis

I have so many questions about love. How do you win at it? Especially if you're in a relationship with an impossible person? What if you believe in someone who's completely untrustworthy, who at their core can't even believe in themselves?

Paul Haggis

My kids paid the price for my career. We can say it's for our family, but it almost never is. It's about us. It's just some of us can pretend better than others.

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

Even a modicum of celebrity is hard to deal with. You see it with actors and directors all the time.

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 it when an actor is secure enough to ask questions, and the director is secure enough not to be threatened by that.

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

Irish and Italian are my two favourite people.

Paul Haggis

I'm a filmmaker, and I was most influenced by Hitchcock's films. How he could plant such deep enriched characters and then make us care both about the antagonist and protagonist was masterful.

Paul Haggis

You can't plan for people to like your movies. I knew that people were not going to run in droves to the theater for the 'In the Valley of Elah.' I knew they might not want to see it, but I still had to the movie; I felt very strongly about it. Wanting to keep telling a good story is what you want to do, a compelling story.

Paul Haggis