40 Quotes by Joe Swanberg

My directing is really weird. Everything is based on whether it's working or not. I don't try to fix something if it's not working, I'll just change it.

There are different levels of scripting that we all use; I think I'm the most improvised of the three, and probably Andrew's the most written. But all of that is in pursuit of similar things, and I think that we kind of recognize that in each other.

We're looking for a certain kind of realism or naturalism, and we go about it in different ways, but I think we're all striving for the same end result, which is to capture the patterns of conversations and how people interact in a very realistic way.

[Having bigger budget] allowed me to be a full-time filmmaker for a couple months and not have to have a day job and be balancing a bunch of other stuff. It allowed me to bring in all these people from different parts of the country. It allows me to have an actual food budget, where we could eat healthy for the month we were shooting. It makes all the difference in the world.

I think in general I personally have a tendency to protect other people's feelings, and I've noticed that becomes a major hindrance to communication. It's better to just be honest, even if it's painful.

For a lot of people, you get cramped making decisions together and living together and every other thing that starts to happen. I just think you have to be vigilant in the relationship to carve out space for yourself. And a lot of that requires knowing what you need and communicating that to your partner, which is hard.

There's something really nice about missing the person you're with. To have someone be apart enough to force independence and to also look forward to seeing that person.

Rather than look at a marriage as two people morphing into one thing, you could see two individuals who are choosing to form a partnership.

Just because you married doesn't mean you're not an individual person with your own wants and desires and needs.