Todd Haynes Quotes

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Todd Haynes

Profession : Director

Birth : January 2, 1961

I love how 'melodrama' is a denigrated term - a lower-class citizen to other genres. And yet that's what life is, man.

Todd Haynes

I worked with Jim James on my film 'I'm Not There' - he sang 'Goin' to Acapulco' with Calexico backing him up. We just hit it off, and it's such a beautiful moment in that film.

Todd Haynes

'Evil Urges' has some stuff in it that's unbelievable.

Todd Haynes

'Carol' takes place at a time the country was crawling out of the shadows of the war years, feeling the new vulnerabilities of the Cold War and conflicts within the union.

Todd Haynes

I live in Portland. I'm a man of the world, and I live in Portland.

Todd Haynes

'Mildred' was the first film I shot on Super 16 with Ed Lachman, and we decided to continue doing so for 'Carol.'

Todd Haynes

I'm pretty single-minded, unlike a lot of directors who miraculously seem to be holding six projects in their hand at a given time and juggling them accordingly.

Todd Haynes

When 'Safe' came out, it was treated respectfully but kind of forgotten. Then, by the end of the '90s, it somehow made it onto all these best-of-the-decade lists.

Todd Haynes

I've been really lucky with critical reaction, overall, even if my films don't often resemble each other.

Todd Haynes

I'm always interested in what classic crime writers got into when they stepped away from the genre stuff they were known for. That's why 'Mildred Pierce' is like noir without any real crime.

Todd Haynes

All actors are protecting something, in their own way, that happens in front of a camera.

Todd Haynes

Every actor prepares differently and to different degrees of privacy. Some want to talk everything out. Others really don't want to talk anything out - or rehearse much.

Todd Haynes

The bond company comes in if you exceed your costs; they're the insurers of the film. In the worst-case scenario, they take over the production.

Todd Haynes

Looking at photographs of New York in 1952, you find a powerfully pre-Eisenhower era - sagging, tired, distressed - and the palette is slightly dissonant.

Todd Haynes

I don't know if I ever entertained an academic career, nor did I ever think I'd become a feature film-maker in the market.

Todd Haynes

I saw experimental film-makers teaching in college. They did what they wanted and didn't worry about the market, but the circumstances ended up offering me other possibilities.

Todd Haynes

When you premiere somewhere like Cannes, it's huge. It's nerve-wracking.

Todd Haynes

I think it remains a film-by-film process, and since I am relatively selective and slow, it can take a while.

Todd Haynes

I had really loving parents and a happy childhood.

Todd Haynes

My parents are very supportive and proud.

Todd Haynes