It was very hard to make ‘Funny Face’ in Paris because making movies is difficult and making a movie in a city that was glorious, that was unique and surprising, to get it, to put it on film you have to make choices and reject a lot of things so you’re always wondering: ‘Am I doing it right?’ Stanley Donen Read Quote
My childhood wasn’t very happy. It’s a long, grim story about being a Jew in a small southern town. Stanley Donen Read Quote
There was never any point in my life when I wasn’t called Mr. Donen. I’m told my first words were, ‘Call me Mr. Donen.’ But I suspect that’s apocryphal. My mother, Mrs. Donen, tended to exaggerate. Stanley Donen Read Quote
You see, it took me so long, it was such a struggle, to move myself out of musicals – because I had had a success, nobody wanted to allow me to direct a non-musical picture. It was so hard. And the only way I could get it going was to become a producer myself. Stanley Donen Read Quote
People always say to me, ‘You have such a clearly defined sense of style,’ and when I hear it, I get crazed, because what I hear – and I know they mean it as a compliment – is that I have such a narrow vision that I can’t get out of it. Stanley Donen Read Quote
The funniest thing is not who influenced me positively, but who influenced me negatively. I had such an aversion to what Busby Berkeley did; in my early formative years, I thought it was terrible. Now, I think it’s wonderful. But then, I wanted to do anything but what Busby Berkeley did. Stanley Donen Read Quote
What we think about Paris is a part of how we feel about it. Our idea of Paris is our idea and we don’t know that that’s not necessarily the way it really is. It feels so real. Stanley Donen Read Quote
There’s no more film. Film is gone. We photograph digitally and electronically. We don’t really use film the same way anymore – it’s disappearing little by little. Things change. We have to change with them. There’s no point in liking or not liking it. It is what it is. Stanley Donen Read Quote
