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Gus Van Sant

Gus Van Sant Quotes

Film director

Gus Van Sant is an influential American film director known for his unique artistic style and profound exploration of social issues. His works span a variety of genres, from independent films to commercial blockbusters, showcasing his distinctive insights into the art of cinema.

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All Ifs Knows Film Thinking Trying Actors People Stories Way Character Different Might Gay Ideas Sometimes Audience Kids Looks Movie School

Famous Gus Van Sant Quotes

“It's hard to speculate as a human about the afterlife because you're not in it. And it's probably as wild and wacky as you could imagine. The idea that people have figured it out, I'm not sure if I can fathom that.”

People Ifs Humans I Can Ideas Hard Imagine Not Sure Afterlife Fathom Wacky

Author:Gus Van Sant

“It's easy to keep score at a football game because it's just how many times you get the ball over the goal. But, when you ask an audience to tell us how many times the invisible ball got over the invisible goal, and they go, "Well, it was 46," they're just making it up. So, if you're listening to that, as though you're actually listening to the score of a football game, you're misleading yourself.”

Ifs Wells Asks Games Easy Goal Audience Football Listening Balls Invisible Score Mislead Football Game

Author:Gus Van Sant

“Digital information, for every type of storage, is unfounded. If everything is on a hard drive and the hard drive freezes up, your whole photography collection could just go away. We can still look at printed photographs of our grandparents. We can physically hold them in our hands and look at it.”

Ifs Looks Stills Hard Whole Hands Information Type Photography Photograph Collections Digital Going Away Grandparent Printed Freeze Storage

Author:Gus Van Sant

“Silent is about needing to make a scene shorter by having physical things to cut to. That way, you can manipulate a character to the other side of the room. But, if they say the wrong thing, it might locate that action in a particular part of the scene. It's a mechanical need.”

Ifs Way Needs Character Might Action Sides Rooms Cutting Particular Scene Silent Manipulate Wrong Things Physical Things

Author:Gus Van Sant

“Even if you try to copy a film shot by shot, you still can't. It's still your own film.”

Ifs Trying Stills Film Shots Copies

Author:Gus Van Sant

“If a movie isn't released, it's one thing, but if you know it will be, it's nice to have closure and see it come out.”

Ifs Knows Actors Nice One Thing Movie Closure

Author:Gus Van Sant

“If it were up to the executives, they probably wouldn't have directors at all.”

Ifs Directors Executives

Author:Gus Van Sant

“If you don't have the story and the unfolding of the trajectory of the saga, it's like getting in a car and not having any gas.”

Ifs Stories Car Gas Unfolding Trajectory Saga

Author:Gus Van Sant

“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.”

Ifs Knows Might Surprise Blow Suspense Bombs Bus Tense Hitchcock

Author:Gus Van Sant

“I've always been interested in how to present something that relates to our reality - which is not really... I don't even know if documentary itself does as good a job. It has its own problems in trying to get at the reality of the situation.”

Ifs Knows Trying Doe Problem Reality Jobs Situation Relate Documentaries

Author:Gus Van Sant

“If you put up posters around town for high-school kids, high-school kids will come. If you're casting politicians, you can't put up posters and have politicians come down.”

Ifs Kids School Politician High School Towns Casting Posters

Author:Gus Van Sant

“You're following your track, the story, your only plan, your map for the audience, and all the other stuff is, like, the fun stuff: the costumes, the locations, the set-dressing and the actors. They can all be variable as you like if you stick - however roughly - to the path.”

Ifs Stories Actors Fun Stuff Audience Path Plans Sticks Track Following Maps Location Costumes Dressings Variables Fun Stuff

Author:Gus Van Sant

“If Im 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.”

Ifs Needs Might Young Connections Cancer Circles Despondent

Author:Gus Van Sant

“I'm not being analytical. I just create everything intuitively. If you're too analytical, what you're doing probably ends up being too specific.”

Author:Gus Van Sant

“I have this new theory about films. It's almost like astrology, where if we started on a Tuesday the film will be different than if we started on a Wednesday. Not because of the planets. It's that sometimes you start with the wrong balance and the whole thing gets messed up.”

Ifs Different Sometimes Whole Film Planets Theory Balance Astrology Tuesday Messed Up Wednesday

Author:Gus Van Sant

“There are all kinds of ways that people present their films, but that's kind of a good feeling, if you can make it seem like the characters are really there.”

People Ifs Way Kind Character Feelings Seems Film All Kinds Good Feeling

Author:Gus Van Sant

“Usually when I read something, first of all I'm looking for the story and then when I reread it, I'm sort of checking every part of it to see if every scene is necessary.”

Ifs Firsts Stories Scene

Author:Gus Van Sant

“When I was 14, I felt very rundown; I had a home to go to, but I felt like I was 60 or something, older than I feel now. And I don't know if it's something that happens at 14, or whether it was adolescence or whether I was gay, or closeted gay, or whatever it was, I felt that.”

Ifs Knows Feels Home Happens Felt Gay Adolescence

Author:Gus Van Sant

About the Author

Born: July 24, 1952
Known for: Film director
Quotes: 87

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