Excerpts: David Fincher

People will say, “There are a million ways to shoot a scene”, but I don’t think so. I think there’re two, maybe. And the other one is wrong.

[regarding which personality traits help in being a director] Belligerence certainly helps. And there’s a requisite paranoia. There’s fear—fear of failure—and an overwhelming urge to be liked.

I do agree you can’t just make movies three hours long for no apparent reason. For a romantic comedy to be three hours long, that’s longer than most marriages.

My idea of professionalism is probably a lot of people’s idea of obsessive.

As a director, film is about how you dole out the information so that the audience stays with you when they’re supposed to stay with you, behind you when they’re supposed to stay behind you, and ahead of you when they’re supposed to stay ahead of you.

Directing ain’t about drawing a neat little picture and showing it to the cameraman. I didn’t want to go to film school. I didn’t know what the point was. The fact is, you don’t know what directing is until the sun is setting and you’ve got to get five shots and you’re only going to get two.