Griffin Dunne Quotations

Although there was a screenplay, the actors never knew what questions I was going to ask them, and all of my character's voice-over narration and scenes were added after the fact.

New York means so much to people. If you're inclined to leave the nest, New York is where most people think they have to go, and it's been that way since the first skyscraper.

I think we were the first picture to cut on Final Cut Pro. So we were the guinea pigs, because we got a deal on the system. But with that comes all sorts of technological problems I couldn't begin to describe.

On every movie I've done as a director, I look at the producers and having done it, I don't envy them, at all.

I'm being told it saves money to shoot in Toronto, because of tax benefits, the crews are cheaper, but what I save in the bottom line, I lose in a million other ways.

But I remember feeling as a producer I felt like the guy who called the caterer and got the band; I had to work the party while everybody else was having a good time.

It struck me that working digitally with a small crew, I could lay out a general plan for Famous and hope for mistakes which would create something more than satire and something less than truthful reality.

I produced six movies with Amy Robinson since the very early 80s.

I'm in five guilds; that's a lot of dues to pay. So I have to keep on working.

Every movie is wildly different. So many of the problems are the same, but they take on different guises.

I came to New York to be an actor and I became a film producer first.

I met Steve McQueen once. Well, met isn't really the right word.

I only got to be able to act, because I gave myself a job as a producer.

I've always been schizophrenic; I've never been interested in limiting myself.

My hunger and desperation, being an actor, an out of work actor - my memory of that is as fresh as an open wound.

And I like being able to go back and forth, and I don't really care if it's a small budget or big budget or studio or independent, as long as it's got a story that's compelling and there's enough money to make the picture.

Documentaries have always inspired me in narrative filmmaking.

If movies are set in New York, they really should be shot in New York.

As a director, I've been able to combine with what I've learned as an actor and as a producer: it melds quite nicely into what I feel like I should have been doing all along.

But at the same time, never having final cut before, I really learned an interesting thing for any studio executive who is reading this: that if a director has final cut, it's actually easier and more interesting to listen to notes.

In the '80s, I can't say that Amy and I were aware of an independent film community. We could only get a certain amount of money for our pictures, which made them low budget movies, but they were distributed through studios.

I still produce, by the way, a couple of projects that I'd like to produce and direct, because I have ownership of the material.

There are just not other cities where you don't need a car, where everyone is reliant on public transportation, where we're all in each other's faces.

I remember my earliest images of New York came from movies, and I couldn't believe that people lived on top of each other in tall buildings.

Every time I act in something, I learn something about what the director is doing. One feeds the other.

I love working with actors. I love to see what they're going to do. There's just something very thrilling and satisfying with being involved with something, all the way through the process [making movie].

When you're directing, I feel like I'm playing all the parts, without the make-up. I really get into the heads of the characters.

To see a comedy in an environment where you're surrounded by other people that are laughing is great. That's probably more satisfying than just watching it by yourself.

If I knew that, I'd fall in love over and over again. Hearts aren't supposed to be mended. If you fall in love and it doesn't work out, you get a broken heart. What comes out of that will make you a better lover and partner next time.

Amy and I had a real talent for putting together the people who should know each other, putting together that party. That part I still love.