Quotes from Todd Haynes

A lot of actors just don't seem grown up no matter how old they get... just juveniles with grey hair.

The term 'new queer cinema' and the films of mine that were associated with that term are from a very, very different time, one almost entirely defined by the AIDS era. It was a very different social and cultural regard for the lives, the experiences, the worth of gay people.

I like to rehearse before blocking.

Every actor prepares differently and to different degrees of privacy. Some want to talk everything out. Others really don't want to talk anything out - or rehearse much.

You can be a smarty-pants director, but that won't matter if the movie doesn't work emotionally as well as intellectually.

Making a movie about the love between two women was really a tribute to the lesbian people in my life, my dear friends who are seminal in my life.

I think it remains a film-by-film process, and since I am relatively selective and slow, it can take a while.

I'm a great admirer, fan and consumer of television. I love serial drama. I have been a major fan of HBO's series for many years.

I always learn a lot when I do so. You know, when you step out of your comfort zone and even your cynical zone, and open yourself up to what other people might experience and why they do so.

You have to be somewhat ruthless with your work. You have to let things go. Even your favourite little part might not work in the end.

I do think that, yes, one should always be receptive to the fact that there are many different types of audiences, and they are not necessarily in a clean, reductive demographic like they once were.

Serious films for grown-ups - 'Michael Clayton,' 'In the Valley of Elah,' 'A Mighty Heart' - these are big Hollywood films, but they have substance and craft and really beautiful performances.