Filmmaking is a thousand choices a day, and it’s important to just let those choices potentially be informed by something deeper. Shane Carruth Read Quote
I can honestly say, there was a moment when I was writing ‘Upstream Color’ where I fell so hard for what it was becoming that I couldn’t think of anything else. I was absolutely secure in this story in the way I’m rarely secure about anything else in my life. Shane Carruth Read Quote
In school, when I got into upper-level math, there would be times when I would wake up from a dream and have – not an answer, exactly, but a direction to pursue. My writing has always been like that. I wake up from dreams knowing which direction to go in. Shane Carruth Read Quote
I feel like math and writing are the same thing. You’re putting together a lot of complex things to satisfy different requirements. It’s got to be aesthetically pleasing; it’s got to have subtext; it’s got to convey information. Shane Carruth Read Quote
My job as an author – at least the way I think of it – is to make a story that is coded and puzzling enough to entice conversation and interpretation, but also to do the opposite: to make some things clear so that it is meaningful in some way, not just a random assemblage of ideas. Shane Carruth Read Quote
I love to work. It’s the idea of having someone else tell you how to make your film or how to sell it – that’s the part I can’t really deal with. I would rather do 1,000 things that are work than deal with one thing that’s a political problem. Shane Carruth Read Quote
Going to grocery stores is almost my favorite thing to do to calm myself down. There’s something about just walking aisle after aisle making mundane choices. ‘Do I want that? No, I want the one that has the low sodium.’ And that feels like a good exercise to be doing when there isn’t anything to be doing. It’s like a kick-starter in some way. Shane Carruth Read Quote
Pierrot le Fou’ is something I keep coming back to. It’s so surreal but still really engaging – it proves narratives within narratives are a landscape that can be pursued well. Shane Carruth Read Quote
I don’t spend a lot of time in nature. Probably less than most people that live in urban Texas. Shane Carruth Read Quote
I’ve heard stories about movies that are really maybe difficult and really dramatic and good, but they are being sold as romantic comedies. All it’s going to do is just… that’s hurting the work, because that just makes it impossible for anyone to see it correctly. Shane Carruth Read Quote
