Lisa Cholodenko Quotes

In May 2006, I had our son, Calder. I spent the next couple of years learning how to be a mom.

Along my path, I've realized that this comedy/drama balance is something that's really interesting to me, and I feel, like, authentic to my voice.

I think invariably when you are dealing with relationships, the films really center on that, and the plot is really born out of that. That's the most core part of a relationship: intimacy, I think, whether it's expressed or not.

I was very influenced by the films of the '70s.

I'm in my mid-40s now, and I came out in 11th grade, so I must have been 17. So that's quite a long time ago, and the temperature and the culture was different.

I feel like if you feel good about a script, and you feel confident about your ability to direct and just capture it right, it's all just, really, really in your favor there.

I was a student at SF State, and I honestly didn't know where I was headed. I thought maybe something in the social sciences. But I happened to be living with a group of people, and one person was a film student. I was always keen on and aware of what she was doing.

There is a core value I wanted to illuminate: No matter what kind of family you have - straight, gay, married, single parent, separated, no kids, two kids, 20 kids, whatever - we all go through the human comedy. But if the bonds are strong enough, and the desire is there, you can get to the other side, still together and still a family.

I don't know if my films are about women in a kind of frolicking - here's a grab bag of women's issues. They are about women of substance with very particular stories.

I don't feel like my films are about gender; they are about identity - but a different slant on identity.

In June 2002, I had just finished 'Laurel Canyon' and decided to move back to Los Angeles after nearly a decade in New York. Post-9/11 New York felt different.

I've done episodic television and some other things that have been written by other people.

I have a deal with HBO to develop television, and I am also developing a movie called 'The Abstinence Teacher,' which is based on a book by Tom Perrotta.

I think when you're writing films that just come fresh out of your own imagination - I think probably anyone who's done that, there are certain themes or styles.

I had a great love affair in high school and let myself have that love affair and tried to keep it to myself.

I think for any artist, your voice is always evolving. For me, the constant is finding a tension or balance between drama and comedy.

I just think self-satisfied people ignore certain signs about other people.

There's a lot of technology out there to help people have children in different ways, and later in life, for better or worse.

Hug her. That's what she's there for.

I had a nutty career. I was living in New York. Then I got to an age where my friends and sister were having children, and I started to think I needed to orient myself towards a world where it could happen.

The source of so much of my anxiety in life and the tensions in my relationship is my anxiety about my kid. It's all very abstract and unfounded and ungrounded.

Wendy and I both wanted kids, but since we were pushing 40, the clock was ticking.

Everyone on the planet has a dark and a light. That's a multi-dimensional character.

This whole Oscar thing is so political. It's about how much a film grosses, and who's in it, and how well it has been promoted.

Not only does Annette Bening have a really lovely, deep voice, but she's also a great articulator. I think I'm more of a mumbler.