55 Quotes by Derek Cianfrance

I ask all my actors to do two things: I ask them to fail for me, and I ask them to surprise me.

I feel similar to a lot of people. I don't feel unique. So what I'm trying to do in my films is provide something for people like me, but also a collection of scenes that instigate.

I'm not asking actors to act. I'm asking them to behave. I want to see their being, not how they can fake it.

I'm not the greatest reader. I feel like I have a bit of dyslexia or something, and that's probably why I became a filmmaker. I have the need to communicate, the need to tell stories; and the need to understand stories led me to movies.

When I cast someone in a movie, I have to absolutely trust who they are as a human being. Trust is the intangible of moviemaking.

Making a film is like making a mixtape. You're collecting all this stuff and putting your favorite stuff into it: you have actors that you like, characters that you're interested in, moments you want to explore, themes you want to deal with, music that you want to put in. It's a pastiche of all these things that deal with how you see the world.

As a writer, I always peel back the layers, go to the most sensitive places uncomfortably close to the heart.

Now, I love movies so much, but I find a lot of movies to be arrogant in the way they're kind of know-it-alls - they have perfect characters on the screen that know everything about themselves.

Lars Ulrich, he was my hero growing up. I wanted to be like him. I played the drums.