John Cassavetes quotes
9 quotations, each verified against its source and credited to the work it comes from — the wording as John Cassavetes wrote or said it, not as the internet passes it around.
People have such a belief in the 'written' word. When they don't hear a 'written' word, particularly in my movies, they think it's improvised. It's not. Only two lines in A Woman Under the Influence were actually improvised.
I thought it was funny when critics took the improvisation thing too seriously. It was a joke.
I don't want to frighten people by showing them tragedy. I've never seen an exploding helicopter, I've never seen anybody go and blow somebody's head off. So why should I make films about them? But I have seen people destroy themselves in the smallest way. I've seen people withdraw.
It may interest other people, but I have a one-track mind. That's all I'm interested in, is love. And the lack of it. When it stops. And the pain that's caused by loss or things taken away from us that we really need.
To find out the delicate balance between living and dying. I mean, I think that's the only subject there is.
All the people I meet make up my films. I make movies not about somebody else's, but my life!
So I mortgaged my house to raise half of the $250,000 budget I needed, and Peter provided the other half out of his earnings from Columbo.
Everything in my whole life has been propelled by panic.
In our films what we are saying is so gentle. It's gentleness. We have problems, terrible problems, but our problems are human problems.
The Friday Letter
One story from the atlas, every Friday.
No algorithms chasing attention. A work, a place, and the connection between them — with the history checked.