121 Quotes by David O. Russell

I just love real characters; they’re not pretentious, and every emotion is on the surface, they’re regular working people. Their likes, their dislikes, their loves, their hates, their passions; they’re all right there on the surface.

There’s nothing better than having a collaborator that you have a great shorthand with and a great comfort with who’s shepherding the project along. I mean, that’s the best thing that can happen in cinema where there’s many cooks in the kitchen.

That’s just how I see things. I think things that are the most dramatic or tragic can also look the most ridiculous and funny. That’s part of being human.

It’s my experience that endings are never easy, and I think I’m not alone among filmmakers or writers in this.

I think audiences deserve the benefit of the doubt. I prefer to be surprised by them rather then just assume they’ll react negatively to any new idea.

I make every movie and every scene like it could be my last. That’s the only way I know how to make cinema that stands on its feet. I have to treat it like that. It has to be life and death stakes.

I got a nomination for director, which means the world to me; it’s just the most exciting thing for me and my family. You do the good hard work, and the rest of it is something you shouldn’t get too caught up in, but when it happens – boy! I respect it.

When most people turn on their TVs, they don’t expect a frank discussion of philosophical ideas in their practical context. Or any context.

It’s absurd that we’re so quick to criticize Muslims for being fundamentalist when Christians can be just as extreme and fanatical and frightening.