Neil Jordan Quotes

For me, the filmmaking has to be about the dramaturgy.

It's the same thing in a way, although writing a book is a very solitary thing.

I am afraid of him now. The one I love most in the world.

I'm less comfortable making American movies because I don't know them so well.

When you've written a movie, you then get together with a whole lot of people and make it. In many ways, I think it is far nicer to be with people rather than being completely solitary.

Well, I suppose I'm interested in ways of storytelling and in stories that are about storytelling.

But everyone gets burnt, don't they? Certain things are outside of your control. I suppose the only thing you can learn as a director is to not put yourself into situations where it can get outside of your control. And that's what happened.

I had made a decision, although I hardly knew it yet. It's often that way with decisions, they're made in some hidden part of us and the awareness secretes itself slowly into that conscious part of us that imagines it decides.

I don't think we have enough imaginary creatures in cinema. It seems like we're stuck with zombies, vampires, and werewolves. We should have everything. We should have minotaurs. We should have elves. We should have mermen in popular culture. But instead we've stuck with vampires.

No, I just thought of a story and wrote down what I saw. It was about two kids in Ireland who went around killing people. It was called Travelers, and it was made as an independent film.

And I think I often choose to do something because it's quite different from what I've done before.

I can't do a film if I don't start with the writing.

Why should a horror film be just a horror film? To me, The Company of Wolves is a fairy tale; it's got all those elements plus a lot more. And we know that fairy tales aren't innocent any more.

It is extremely difficult to get movies that cost more than $40 million to be made these days.

If movies have to satisfy every possible quadrant before they're even made, they're dull. You only get great things when people overreach themselves.

You are intelligent, you are diplomatic, you are beautiful, and you are and always will be ... [he kisses her] ... MINE ...

I took two years away from making films to write a novel.

A prince may be seen happy today and ruined tomorrow without having shown any chance in his character. For the prince who relies entirely on fortune is lost when it changes ...

For me now, it's about what you would write and what you wouldn't write, and that's how I select what I am going to do. It can be quite nice being brought a concept by a studio for me to work on.

Nina felt an inordinate pleasure, a pleasure that seemed to creep up on her the way the mud oozed through her barefoot toes.

Well, if you're talking about the current climate, there's a lack of content in American film because I think people are deeply confused about their emotions, and they don't regret certain aspects of their own foreign policy.

I walked with them, as crowds have that effect on me, I want to do what they do, to journey towards some point of revelation, which of course never comes

I hoped that grief was similar to the other emotions. That it would end, the way happiness did. Or laughter.

The Company of Wolves doesn't belong in any category, so it's difficult to prepare an audience for it. It's not a horror film, it's not a fantasy film, it's not a children's film - so what is it?

The Company of Wolves is about how society teaches young women to look at themselves, and what to be afraid of. It's about a girl learning that the world of sensuality and the unknown is not to be feared, that it's worth getting your teeth into.

I mean I grew up in Ireland, so one would have to be consciously blinkered not to have reflected on the issue of political violence because that was the story since I was 19 years old or 20.

The End of the Affair is almost like a play.

In Dreams ... well, I was slightly overcompensating with that. I was a bit like a director for hire, so maybe I was putting too much imagery that was familiar to me into it.

Initially with The Butcher Boy, there was this kid growing up in this strange, weird environment that I remember from when I was a kid. And Patrick's vision was so complete there.

I've also worked hard portraying an Ireland which is fast disappearing. Ireland was a very depressed and difficult place in the 1980s, and I've tried to include that in the script. I worked really hard to find the heart of the book.

There's no point in making a film out of a great book. The book's already great. What's the point?

Never make a promise - you may have to keep it.

Films have gotten leaner and leaner, cutting out all variations from the story line.

Don't you understand brother? I want to find a love ... that will free me from this love ...

It's nice to work with Hollywood because there is never any question of resources put at your disposal to make a film as long as it is the right thing to do.