Todd Haynes Quotes

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Todd Haynes

Profession : Director

Birth : January 2, 1961

You have to be somewhat ruthless with your work. You have to let things go. Even your favourite little part might not work in the end.

Todd Haynes

Love stories require an obstacle between the lovers, something that keeps them from one another. You have to yearn for the love that can't be fulfilled. And it gets harder to conceive of viable cultural or racial or sexual obstacles between people as we move forward progressively.

Todd Haynes

It's very funny because every time I make a movie, and I've heard this re-echoed by other filmmakers and actors I have worked with, you kind of feel like you're naked again. You have to figure it all out from scratch, as if you had never done it before.

Todd Haynes

I don't think there's any more synesthetic medium than film.

Todd Haynes

When you're shooting concert scenes in films, we try to bring in, where appropriate, as much of a sense of live performance as possible.

Todd Haynes

There's no better place to do a longform project than HBO. I loved the creative teams I got a chance to work with.

Todd Haynes

It's absurd: half the movie audience are women, but Hollywood bosses are still aiming for men who are 20.

Todd Haynes

Making a movie about the love between two women was really a tribute to the lesbian people in my life, my dear friends who are seminal in my life.

Todd Haynes

I'm drawn to female characters; not all of them are strong characters.

Todd Haynes

I don't want to make people feel better.

Todd Haynes

You can be a smarty-pants director, but that won't matter if the movie doesn't work emotionally as well as intellectually.

Todd Haynes

Making a film is so scary, and there's such a kind of void that you're working from initially. I mean, you can have all the ideas and be as prepared as possible, but you're also still bringing people together and saying, 'Trust me,' even when you don't necessarily trust every element.

Todd Haynes

Pop music can get inside us and enter our memory bubbles. It provides those true Proustian moments, unlocking sensations, unlocking our imaginations. Music inspired me as a filmmaker.

Todd Haynes

In high school - that's when I first fell in love with his music and his voice. 'Blonde on Blonde' above everything. I vaguely remember 'Desire' coming out. I definitely remember 'Street Legal' and 'Slow Train Coming.' The first time I saw Dylan was on that tour: '79 in L.A.

Todd Haynes

I think when I was about 6 or 7, I would have said I wanted to be an actor and an artist.

Todd Haynes

I think by around the time I was about 8 or 9, the idea of filmmaking probably took hold. I made little Super 8 extravaganzas when I was a kid, the first being my own version of 'Romeo and Juliet,' and where I played all the parts except for Juliet.

Todd Haynes

You always feel like rock critics are frustrated musicians. I envy musicians their ability to live their art and share it with an audience, in the moment.

Todd Haynes

I liked to act in plays when I was a kid, and then in college. But that's the last time I really acted. I always loved it. But my interests were more in looking at the whole, rather than getting completely swallowed up in a single part of the whole.

Todd Haynes

I think all my films can be enjoyed. In fact, they've often surprised me with how they're received.

Todd Haynes

Like the music and the period, I wanted 'I'm Not There' to be fun and full of emotions, desires and experiments that were thrilling and dangerous.

Todd Haynes