In high school, I read ‘Silas Marner’ and I was very attracted to this character – he was very rundown and he’d just stop, and things would happen around him. Gus Van Sant Read Quote
The rules of suspense are that you do know, and you just don’t know when. In the Hitchcock rules of suspense, you are supposed to know that there is a bomb on the bus that might blow up, and then it becomes very tense – but if you don’t know that there’s a bomb and it just blows up, then it’s just a surprise. Gus Van Sant Read Quote
There is a way that a younger person can accept the inevitable problem that they’re going to die, whereas somebody a little bit older might be overcome. Gus Van Sant Read Quote
Wong Kar-Wai is a really great inspiration. He’s always referred to as the Jimi Hendrix of filmmaking. Gus Van Sant Read Quote
Modern-day cinema takes the form of a sermon. You don’t get to think, you only get to receive information. Gus Van Sant Read Quote
Even when you’re making a movie about life, death is a presence, and I guess it’s part of my dramatic viewpoint. I’m not sure why exactly. Maybe I’m drawn to it as a story element. Gus Van Sant Read Quote
If I’m diagnosed with cancer I might become despondent, but someone young might not, and they might need connections with somebody outside their circle of family because their family is so despondent. Gus Van Sant Read Quote
Usually, when I read something, I’m looking for the story first. And then, when I re-read it, I check every part of it to see whether every scene is necessary. You imagine yourself watching the movie, to see whether or not you’re losing the through-line of the story. Gus Van Sant Read Quote
Gay marriage is the last bastion of, to me… as a legal, ceremonial, sentimental and religious side, it’s one of the last steps. Retaining your job being one of the earlier steps, like, not getting kicked out of your job because you’re gay. Gus Van Sant Read Quote
The reason I know about ‘Tomb Raider’ is from when I was researching ‘Elephant.’ It was 1999, and I was trying to research the Columbine-massacre kids, and they had played video games, and I, at the time, had never really seen one. It was a world I didn’t know. Gus Van Sant Read Quote