Noah Baumbach famous quotes

I like having associations with locations beyond their meaning for the specific movie.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Association #Location

I like to have memories of a place. It brings something extra. I'm not even sure what it is. I mean, it's the same part of it as I like using friends in small parts or people I know or my doorman.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Memories #Mean #People

I like to try to shoot in the city in a way that allows the city to go about its business while we're shooting, and that's always a challenge because unfortunately people on the street don't know not to look in the camera or interact with the actors.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Cities #People #Challenges

There was a telemarketing job one summer in high school that I was rejected for. I still walk by the building that I actually had the interview in. It's still in New York, and I always think about that job and why I didn't get it.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Summer #Jobs #New York

We all have these notions of cool that come about at different points in our lives, and it's interesting in how it evolves or doesn't evolve in different people.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Interesting #People #Different

Wes Anderson grew up in Houston, and he and I talk about Manhattan in similar ways, as a kind of fantasy world.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Houston #World #Way

I've always felt some kind of connection to people who are kind of over-smart. People who over-think things to the point of some sort of paralysis, and I think that certainly can be me on any given day.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Smart #Thinking #People

I'm interested in the way major events don't necessarily announce themselves as major events. They're often little things - the drip, drip of life that changes people or affects people.
-- Noah Baumbach

#People #Littles #Way

I've had great experiences or joyful experiences making a movie that people found very disturbing.
-- Noah Baumbach

#People #Joyful #Found

I think all my movies are about transitions to some degree.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Thinking #Degrees #Transition

My dad was a great movie companion. He wouldn't diminish 'The Jerk.' If I liked it, he liked it. He could see it through my eyes.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Dad #Eye #Jerk

I grew up in the heat of '70s postmodern fiction and post-Godard films, and there was this idea that what mattered was the theory or meta in art.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Art #Ideas #Fiction

That's the nice thing about collaborating with someone: Your work becomes a conversation.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Nice #Conversation #Nice Things

Adaptations are fun for me because they connect to the idea of filmmaking I had when I was a kid. I would see a movie and think: 'I'm gonna make that movie.'
-- Noah Baumbach

#Fun #Kids #Thinking

When I make a movie, I have both a specific and vague, amorphous dream idea of what the movie is going to be. Of course, I don't actually know what it's going to be, but I'm still striving to get to some place with it.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Dream #Ideas #Strive

I was late to the Knicks. My dad was a big fan. But I first started watching baseball; I became a Red Sox fan. My dad was a Mets fan. I wanted to have my own team and league.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Baseball #Dad #Team

I feel a real connection to Brooklyn, certainly, because I spent 20 years of my life there, but I don't think of myself as a Brooklyn artist any more than I think of myself as a male artist.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Real #Thinking #Artist

I suppose some studio executive would say it's death for a comedy if people aren't all laughing in the same places, but I find with my movies that people laugh in very different places. I can't control it.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Laughing #People #Different

It's near impossible to make a movie in black and white in the system.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Black And White #White #Black

Will Ferrell's made a lot of brilliant movies.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Brilliant #Made

There are the people who overthink making mix CDs and playlists, and how that works generationally is all really interesting to me.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Cds #Interesting #People

I don't agree with the idea that my characters are unlikeable.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Character #Ideas #Agree

I've always liked working with friends or, you know, people I have outside relationships with.
-- Noah Baumbach

#People

There's always some generational-guys-hanging-out movie that is made every few years, I think, and some of them are great.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Thinking #Years #Guy

There's something really vulnerable about playing something that you like for someone. You don't know what their reaction will be.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Vulnerable #Reactions

Other people have worked with big studios and maintained control over their movies. I see no reason why it wouldn't work for me.
-- Noah Baumbach

#People #Reason #Bigs

I don't like when you necessarily know that this is the end of the movie. I like when a movie ends abruptly. You go through this, and some of the scenes are uncomfortable, and some are funny - and then suddenly it's over.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Scene #Ends #Uncomfortable

Friends of friends had bands in college or in their early 20s and had a moment where they had some kind of interest from a record label or manager. It's always interesting how people handle those decisions and those moments.
-- Noah Baumbach

#College #Interesting #People

I'm a huge proponent of therapy and analysis, but it's something that, in a nonprofessional way, can be abused.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Analysis #Way #Therapy

I find a lot of writing happens when you're not actually at the computer. So I carry a notebook.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Notebook #Writing #Computer

It's nice being friends over a period of time with people whose music you like so much, or other filmmakers, seeing people change, go through trials
-- Noah Baumbach

#Change #Nice #People

I do like having books on my shelves. I do value that life.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Book #Shelves #Values

How you start the movie is critical. And how often you feel that there's no reason for how it's starting.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Reason #Starting #Feels

I didn't train in directing; I talk to actors the way I talk to anybody.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Actors #Way #Train

Defining yourself by your taste is easier than defining yourself by any genuine stance on something.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Taste #Defining #Genuine

Being funny, in some ways, is about being connected to psychology.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Psychology #Way #Connected

A film set becomes its own family anyway, and all family dynamics come out during a shoot. The trick is hiring people who know how to handle that.
-- Noah Baumbach

#People #Dynamics #Film

Being articulate, my parents could make anything sound reasonable.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Parent #Sound

Anyone who's putting money into your movie would always rather you cast well-known people.
-- Noah Baumbach

#People #Well Known #Wells

A lot of black-and-white films generally have a color version that will be used for TV.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Black And White #Color #Tvs

I kind of live like a writer. I get up and I write. I've done that my whole life.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Writing #Done #Kind

I love black-and-white movies that are about contemporary subjects.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Black And White #Contemporary #Subjects

When you find yourself on the Internet when you're supposed to be writing, you've already lost. It's even beyond procrastination when you end up on the Internet.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Writing #Procrastination #Finding Yourself

I think anxiety is dangerous, but it makes you think it's your friend.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Thinking #Make You Think #Anxiety

I think it's always interesting how music means different things to different people, and people who overthink it are looking to in some ways show off with music, versus people who just respond to a song and decide to sing it.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Song #Mean #Thinking

I thought at the time of my parents' divorce that I was upset by deeper, more profound things and I was just taking it out on the joint custody agreement. But that disruption was bad enough. That was a huge deal for a teenager.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Teenager #Divorce #Agreement

I think sometimes bad behaviour can be liberating for certain people. They need to behave badly to find themselves - to go off path to find their path. You see it with kids all the time: They're testing boundaries, and I think that's healthy.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Kids #Thinking #People

I like shooting in New York because I have such a connection to the city. I have so many memories there.
-- Noah Baumbach

#New York #Memories #Cities

Manhattan is so tailored. It's driven by appealing to the very wealthy and tourists.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Manhattan #Tourists #Driven

I'm good with a grill. I like to make cheeseburgers - I once read in a David Goodis crime novel that you're only supposed to flip a burger once.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Burgers #Flip #Crime

I always viewed life as material for a movie.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Materials

I think I was going through a lot of change at 27, but I didn't know it was happening until it was over.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Thinking

As a kid, I thought of myself as a funny person who secretly wanted to be serious, but now I think maybe I'm a serious person who secretly wants to be funny.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Kids #Thinking #Want

It's always really special to be at the New York Film Festival, and always a real privilege.
-- Noah Baumbach

#New York #Real #Special

The real achievement of Woody Allen was that he was making movies that felt very personal, and for a whole group of people, it spoke to them. Then he became an archetype, like Groucho Marx or Chaplin.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Real #People #Achievement

Peter Bogdanovich is a good friend.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Good Friend #Peter

When you're around your family, and you have that history and that shared language, you say things you'd be embarrassed to hear quoted back to you later.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Language #Embarrassed #Our Family

We expect forty-year-olds to have grown up at some point, and to be engaged and adult and take responsibility, and doing nothing would seem to go against that.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Responsibility #Years #Doing Nothing

I try to write 'and it's all very funny' after each scene description so that the reader can imagine the movie in their head.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Writing #Trying #Imagine

I like the way corduroys feel. I like the sort of jean aspect of corduroys, but also the texture of them. They probably remind me of my childhood, too, I think. I wore cords, and my dad had a corduroy jacket.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Dad #Thinking #Childhood

I'm always looking for overlooked post-Dylan singer-songwriter records from the '70s.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Singers #Records #Dylan

I read all the time. Sometimes I get asked if I've thought about writing a novel.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Writing #Sometimes #Novel

When I start a movie, there will be certain films that I watch again just because the vibe seems right.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Watches #Film #Certain

I get a lot of responses to my movies. Some people say, 'Oh, I thought it was really funny - I hope that's okay!' And my answer always is 'Yes. It's totally okay.'
-- Noah Baumbach

#People #Answers #Okay

Wes Anderson's films, 6-year-olds are crazy about them.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Crazy #Years #Film

I'm curious how people build up the codes that they live their life by, and how they come to think that that's the best way for them to function.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Thinking #People #Way

I think I've always been drawn to the notion of talk as cinematic.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Thinking #Notion

I wouldn't say 'Frances Ha' is autobiographical, but it's definitely very personal.
-- Noah Baumbach

#France

I try to procrastinate, if I can, productively, like I'll work on something else as procrastination. Or I take a walk. Because often I find, if you get out, more things come to you.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Procrastination #Trying #Procrastinating

I'm sure I've said some pretty bad pick-up lines.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Lines #Said #Pick Up Line

It's kind of major, learning to drive. I feel like it kicked up other stuff in my life.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Stuff #Kind #Feels

I watch movies all the time, so it's hard to pick certain specific directors that have inspired me in the aggregate.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Directors #Watches #Inspired

I'm interested in music as an extension of character.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Character

I've had times in my life when I really haven't been able to figure myself out.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Able #Figures

When I was a kid, I would fantasize about my own funeral.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Kids #Funeral

I made two movies very young, and then I had trouble getting a movie made, and so - which was both, I think, a plus and a minus. It was a minus because it made me unhappy.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Thinking #Two #Unhappy

Dance is a profession with an expiration date for many people.
-- Noah Baumbach

#People #Profession

I really like my first movie a lot, 'Kicking and Screaming.' I think it's a - I'm very pleased and proud of that movie, but it wasn't the - it wasn't 'Citizen Kane' right out of the box, you know? It wasn't 'Sex, Lies and Videotape.'
-- Noah Baumbach

#Sex #Lying #Thinking

You can be aware that something is idiosyncratic, and give it to a character, but keep doing it.
-- Noah Baumbach

#Character #Giving