John Sayles
Birthday: 28 September 1950, Schenectady, New York, USA
Birth Name: John Thomas Sayles
Height: 193 cm
A bright child, John Sayles began reading novels before age 9. A Williams grad in 1972, he shunned a corporate career to work various blue-collar jobs, moving to east Boston to take a factory job. He ...Show More
There's a basic structure to movies. It's rigid and reductive. In a movie you only deal with core re Show more
There's a basic structure to movies. It's rigid and reductive. In a movie you only deal with core relationships: a protagonist, an antagonist. But in a novel you can do whatever you want. You can introduce characters that disappear for a hundred pages. You can have a dozen plot lines that interweave and overlap. In a novel, you get to be God. That doesn't happen in the movies. Hide
[1983 interview] It's great not to have to go around and raise your money - a thousand here, ten tho Show more
[1983 interview] It's great not to have to go around and raise your money - a thousand here, ten thousand there. But if I can't get the same kind of control doing it through a studio - artistic control, which is always important to a project as far as I'm concerned - then I'd just as soon go back to looking for the money myself and do it independently. Hide
I always feel that there are no final victories and no final defeats. But it's true that America is Show more
I always feel that there are no final victories and no final defeats. But it's true that America is in a hole right now. There are a lot of dead fish in the water. Hide
[on "The Brother from Another Planet"] I couldn't afford to hire a production manager, a first assis Show more
[on "The Brother from Another Planet"] I couldn't afford to hire a production manager, a first assistant director, and a second assistant director. Their minimums would have been high enough to make up a third of my budget. Hide
Being a screenwriter is a good job. I can make a good amount of money to put back into my own films.
Being a screenwriter is a good job. I can make a good amount of money to put back into my own films.
Oh, I've always felt like I was on the margins. Once upon a time that's what independent used to mea Show more
Oh, I've always felt like I was on the margins. Once upon a time that's what independent used to mean. Hide
The scariest movie I ever saw was John Carpenter's The Thing (1982) with special effects by Rob Bott Show more
The scariest movie I ever saw was John Carpenter's The Thing (1982) with special effects by Rob Bottin. The theater was full, and I had to sit in the front row. Hide
I want to direct films that no one else is going to make. I know if I don't make them, I'm never goi Show more
I want to direct films that no one else is going to make. I know if I don't make them, I'm never going to see them. Of course, I hope some people will want to see my movies as well, but I won't pander to the public. I won't try to second guess what a Hollywood studio would like to see in a low-budget film, so that they will hire me the next time around. I know I will always do better work if I do projects in which I really believe. And if I never get to direct again, I will have made some movies I can feel proud of. Hide
[1983 interview] Because directing is very political and social, it takes up more of your time than Show more
[1983 interview] Because directing is very political and social, it takes up more of your time than writing does. It's more demanding because you have to make the movie when the money is there. A book can just sit there; it doesn't depend on anyone else. That's what's nice about it. You don't have to rely on anyone else - you either do it or you don't. Fiction writing is a break from movie-making for me. Hide
[on making Baby It's You (1983)] I got the cut I wanted, but I was thrown out of the editing room.
[on making Baby It's You (1983)] I got the cut I wanted, but I was thrown out of the editing room.
[1983 interview] The things I write and direct are things I'm not going to see unless I do them.
[1983 interview] The things I write and direct are things I'm not going to see unless I do them.
John Sayles's FILMOGRAPHY
All
as Actor (21)
as Director (3)
as Creator (8)
John Sayles'S roles
