I’m from the Midwest, and I loved my family. I had a very good time as a child, but I was also – I have a theory about Jews growing up in the Midwest, that there is an ultimately sort of wonderful avoidance of a lot of things, and a great acceptance of whatever is happening. Bob Balaban Read Quote
And I think being a good director is being able to be completely tyrannical and you’ve got to be an absolute dictator while at the same time, you have to listen and see everything because it can all change on a dime. Bob Balaban Read Quote
If anyone would have been paying serious attention to my puppet shows, I would have been sent to therapy very young. Bob Balaban Read Quote
Maybe I was 7 – I probably am exaggerating a little – and immediately was plunged into the fact that there was an official place to put your fantasies. Up until then I didn’t know what I would do with them all. It was very exciting for me, and I began very, very early on. Bob Balaban Read Quote
My dad was born in Chicago in 1908… his parents came from Russia. They settled in Chicago, where they lived in a little tiny grocery store with eight or nine children – in the backroom all together – and my grandmother got the idea to go into the movie business. Bob Balaban Read Quote
My dad was the baby. When he was born they were already successful. They sent him to business school – he probably would have loved to have been a poet or a writer or something, and he was very creative. Bob Balaban Read Quote
Oh, I was completely hooked on movies and plays and theater from the time I was a day old – I was very, very early on in love with movies and I loved plays. Bob Balaban Read Quote
People so far have been very fond of the Robert Altman movie, as I am, and when one things goes well it shines light on your other projects and now I seem to have a number of projects that are moving forward. Bob Balaban Read Quote
I’ve directed a fair amount of television series – so I’m always trying to learn new things. One episode was all hand-held and I’m trying to get better at when you should do things and when you should just shut up and watch what the people are saying. Bob Balaban Read Quote
