36 Quotes by D. A. Pennebaker

You can’t point a camera at someone and find out what’s in their head. But it does the next best thing – it lets you speculate.

I would never say no to anything that sounded interesting! The thing I like about making films is that the adventure just begins when you pick up the camera.

I think nowadays people are so used taking the camera to the family picnic – so people are less surprised by films made of them, like home movies.

I guess I think that films have to be made totally by fascists – there’s no room for democracy in making film.

After love, the most sacred gift you can give is your labor.

I think the process is one of using the camera and sound in the way a detective uses a magnifying glass: to find the clues. They're discovery devices, not performance devices - you're watching things the way a cat does. You're not judging. You're there to witness something.

You don't necessarily need a script or actors to tell a compelling tale. Finding a person at a key moment in his life and rendering the truth as you see it - that's the truest form of drama.

When I did 'Don't Look Back,' I no longer had Time-Life looking over my shoulder, so I could kind of do it as I wanted, and it was like I was really correcting 'Jane.'

Albert Grossman called my office and spoke with my partner Richard Leacock and asked if we'd be interested in making a film with his client, Bob Dylan.