69 Quotes by Neil Jordan

It’s the opposite journey from what I’ve usually done with films. I find it very easy to go from, say, a lit, pleasurable environment, like what you see outside there, to a very dark place. But the opposite journey, which is what this movie takes, is much more complicated.

For example, the character of Claire in In Dreams wasn’t imagined enough by me. Annette Bening is a great actress, and she gave a great performance, but because I hadn’t fully written it essentially the character wasn’t finished.

The Company of Wolves doesn’t belong in any category, so it’s difficult to prepare an audience for it. It’s not a horror film, it’s not a fantasy film, it’s not a children’s film – so what is it?

It’s hard to know whether certain characters come to life or not, they either come to have their own life or they don’t. I’ve written many things in which the characters just remain inert.

When you’ve written a movie, you then get together with a whole lot of people and make it. In many ways, I think it is far nicer to be with people rather than being completely solitary.

For me now, it’s about what you would write and what you wouldn’t write, and that’s how I select what I am going to do. It can be quite nice being brought a concept by a studio for me to work on.

I can’t do a film if I don’t start with the writing.

The most difficult thing is the organization of people and the expression of your intentions. It’s very easy to have a picture in your head and to imagine that you’ve told everybody about what you need.

If movies have to satisfy every possible quadrant before they’re even made, they’re dull. You only get great things when people overreach themselves.