Life Has No Plot, Why Must Films

When I Get Depressed, Or Anything, I Go 'think Of All The Music I Haven't Even Heard Yet!' So, It's The One Thing. Imagine The World Without Music. Man, Just Hand Me A Gun, Will You?

I Even Think The Commercial Element Of New American Directors Is Really Fertile Right Now. There Are A Lot Of Filmmakers With Very Particular Visions, Like Sofia Coppola And Wes Anderson And P.t. Anderson And Alexander Payne And Peter Sollett And Harmony Korine And Vincent Gallo. At Least They're Making Films That They Choose To Make, And They're On Their Own. That's Positive To Me. This Is Not A Dead Period For American Cinema At All.

I Like To Rehearse With The Actors Scenes That Are Not In The Script And Will Not Be In The Film Because What We're Really Doing Is Trying To Establish Their Character, And Good Acting To Me Is About Reacting.

I Start With Actors That I Know Personally Or I Know Their Work, And There Are Things About Their Work Or Their Presence Or Their Own Personality That Make A Character, That Exaggerates Some Qualities And Suppresses Other Qualities. It's Always A Real Collaboration For Me.

I Had This Idea For A Long Time To Make A Film About A Poet In Paterson Named Patterson. I Wanted Him To Be Working Class. Eventually I Thought A Bus Was A Perfect Visual Way To Move Him, To Drift Him Through The City, To Have A Measured Kind Of Routine Lifestyle. And All These Things Kind Of Congealed Into The Film "paterson" Eventually.