Julie Delpy Quotes

Performing is the hardest thing. Even though I've done it for so many years, it's still exposing yourself. You suddenly become extremely vulnerable when you're on camera. You're filmed and you're being observed. It's a bit of a violation each time.

People around you that you feel you're close to, are they really wishing you good things, you know?

I was having this awful nightmare that I was 32. And then I woke up and I was 23. So relieved. And then I woke up for real, and I was 32.

I'm comfortable wherever I am, and I can be anywhere and feel comfortable after three weeks. I adapt, and I'm like a chameleon. If a country doesn't have Internet, then I get used to not having the Internet. I could basically live anywhere. I'm a nomad at heart. Nothing is more boring than monotony.

I've never had help from anyone, ever. I've never had this great director who saw themselves in me, because I'm a French woman in Hollywood. Who could identify with me as a successful director in Hollywood? Nobody. And the few people who could have been mentors, instead they just stole my ideas.

My therapist in Paris once told me that being creative is a better form of therapy for me than sitting on his couch.

I think some people, when they get a certain ego, they lose sense of whatever.

Our society is so much about fidelity being this thing that's sacred, and people are miserable. They're suicidal. It brings more depression than anything else on earth, probably. Sorry to say that, guys.

I talk a lot. I express a lot of my feelings verbally.

Some people have bigger egos than others. You have to take a lot of abuse, and take it in and not respond, because you don't want conflicts on the movie, you don't want to start screaming at people even when they treat you - even when they're not behaving properly, because you want them to do their job, and keep on doing it.

If Woody Allen called me, I'd be there straight away. Who wouldn't? Truly.

I wasn't born an artist. I was really good in science as a kid. I probably shouldn't have been an artist because I'm much more interested in science. But I was raised by artists. I can't really escape it.

I love making movies. I love writing. I love acting. I love it, and I feel really blessed to be able to actually make a living with something I love doing.

Men go out with me, we break up and then they get married. And later they call me to thank me for teaching them what love is. That I tought them to care and respect women.
( ... )
I wanna kill them! Why didn't they ask me to marry them? I would've said no, but at least they could have asked.

We didn't want to disrupt the creative process. We have the chance to make the films we want because the films are not expensive. It's very rare to be able to do that. It's completely pure.

I hate that whole Tarantino thing about beating up women and killing them and chopping up. Just because you have the mind of a 12 year old.

Maybe I would get the chance to be financed for a small romantic comedy, but a war movie by a 28-year-old woman about Japanese soldiers? No one was going to go for that. It's easy to just steal an idea because it's very safe.

So often in my life I've been with people and shared beautiful moments like travelling or staying up all night and watching the sunrise, and I knew it was a special moment, but something was always wrong. I wished I'd been with someone else. I knew that what I was feeling - exactly what was so important to me - they didn't understand.

I always feel this pressure of being a strong and independent icon of womanhood, and without making it look my whole life is revolving around some guy. But loving someone, and being loved means so much to me. We always make fun of it and stuff. But isn't everything we do in life a way to be loved a little more?

I always wanted to write a story about a couple coming to that moment in their relationship where either they keep on going or it ends.

Let me sing you a waltz / Out of nowhere, out of my thoughts / Let me sing you a waltz / About this one night stand / You were, for me, that night / Everything I always dreamt of in life / But now you're gone / You are far gone / All the way to your island of rain / It was for you just a one night thing / But you were much more to me, just so you know / I don't care what they say / I know what you meant for me that day / I just want another try, I just want another night / Even if it doesn't seem quite right / You meant for me much more than anyone I've met before / One single night with you, little Jesse, is worth a thousand with anybody / I have no bitterness, my sweet / I'll never forget this one night thing / Even tomorrow in other arms, my heart will stay yours until I die / Let me sing you a waltz / Out of nowhere, out of my blues / Let me sing you a waltz / About this lovely one night stand

I'm a very direct person and, sometimes, when I want something, I will push it until I get it. But, it's OK. It's not as bad as some people. When I have an idea in my head, I'm pretty stubborn.

It's terrifying. Women make their first film, their second film, and then it's like a nightmare, right, to make the third or fourth? I mean, it's almost like men can have three films in a row that don't do that well and keep on going.

I was six years old when I saw my first Godard movie, eight when I first experienced Bergman. I wanted to be a director when I was fourteen.

Maybe I'm a bit of a psycho-but I'd rather be psycho than boring.

Basically, editing is done in rehearsal and in the writing process and in the acting, so it's very, very tricky, very, very tricky.

I've had this opportunity to get some of my financing out of Europe, which has helped tremendously, so I'm not completely dependent on the studio system or on U.S. financing.

When you're an actress, you become this thing in people's hands that people are trying to manipulate. I cannot stand it.

Well, it must have been one hell of a night we're about to have.

I did a film that I shot in 24 hours that was self-financed for $5,000. It was a feature called Looking For Jimmy that I shot with a bunch of friends. I spent eight months editing because we had 24 hours of footage that made no sense and I learned a lot about directing while editing that film.

People think women directors are tough. Truth is, I'm a pussycat and I hate conflict. I just want everyone to be happy on set.

Very quickly I realized that directing is a combination of things: It's visual, it's directing the actors, it's telling a story. And people don't always mention this part of directing, but it's also knowing how to really edit something into something that makes sense.

I'm an adaptable nomad. I love Paris, I've been living in Los Angeles and New York since 1990. I love London, too. My roots are inside of me.

Usually I'm able to imagine something and it comes out as I imagined, more or less.

Never take no for an answer. It took me 20 years between the time I wrote my first screenplay and the time I actually got money to direct a movie.

I like doing sequels. Basically, I think it's a fun thing to follow characters in time. In real time.

I think anyone who has had a fight and who's a very good observer of the situation and people's behavior is capable of writing a fight. But you do start thinking about writing during the fights that you have with your partner.

I have a few other films in my life where I'm not attached and for a long time it was too complicated. Now it's starting to change because other actresses actually want to work with me, which is great.

The truth is I don't see a lot of movies. I see the Oscar films. I see the films that are sent to me and a few films throughout the year.

I put my films together in Europe and it kick-starts the financing when I'm attached as an actress. It makes it easier to move forward.

I don't like to be overly directing people either. I tell them what I want and I tell them when it's wrong. I tell them no, that's not what I want. I want it more like this or more like that. I'm pretty direct with everyone, and I treat everyone the same which might be good.

Most of our life is miscommunication, and when you add a language barrier to it, it just becomes total mayhem and confusion. It just adds to it with all of the cultural differences. It could be an American family meeting another American family and you could still have a total clash. With family, it's like visiting another planet.

I'm quite neurotic, usually. But when it comes to work, I become extremely focused.

What's funny is that with my comedies I don't believe they're my best screenplays necessarily. They're just the ones that I wrote that I knew I could get financing, you know? I believe my other films could be better, but right now they're not being made. But they will eventually.

I've directed five films and I've proven that people have made money with my films - many people have made money with my films.

Baby, you are gonna miss that plane.

I make these little films. I'm just a working person. I just study people a little bit more. It's more sociological, and it's funny anyway - not that serious. It's not like false humility. I just take it for what it is.

I avoid confrontation. When I'm on set I never snap at anyone. I don't have a temper.

I guess when you are young, you believe that you will meet many people with whom you'll connect with, but later in life you realize it only happens a few times.

I can't really explain the feeling of acting. It makes you the most insecure you can possibly be.

I think it's nice when everyone's happy. I'm that kind of person. But then sometimes you have people that are never happy, which also happened to me a little bit, people that always find ways to complain about everything. But if they're never happy, that's the way they are.

Some films do portray women in their 40s well, and some other films don't. Some films are written by women, so maybe there's a little more accuracy there.

Reality and love are almost contradictory for me.

Feminists is something people hate above all. Nothing worse than being a woman in this [movie] business. I really believe that.

The camera can move, you can make the shots, blah blah blah, but as long as the actors are good, you have something.

I've proven that I'm not a complete failure. Every film has done well. It's like, 'So, okay, when do I get my deal at Warner Bros?'

It's a typical story: you think of something, it stays in the back of your head for a while, and then you finally do it.

A lot of new American directors have had mentors who have given them advice. And some of them have had the way paved for them by huge Hollywood directors who saw a younger version of themselves.

I sometimes wish I were African American because people don't bash them afterward. It's the hardest to be a woman.

My experience is that relationships can be difficult, hard work. I love to be in a relationship.

I'm not going to pursue it the way that actors pursue it which means going to all of the auditions and getting a job and all that stuff, because I don't really need to get a job because I have a job as a writer/director. That's how I make my living mostly now. So I don't need to make a living as an actress.

I had to trick people into giving me money for my first film. Making a romantic comedy is easier and more expected from a woman than it is to make a drama about a Japanese warrior.

I actually love Scorsese comedies. He's an underrated comedy director. I think his comedies are some of the best comedies ever made.

I think I do find humor in disorder, and reality is disorder.

I went to film school to make films just because you're in control of the story.