Sam Taylor-Johnson Work Quotations

I think, for me, Julian Schnabel set a great precedent in being able to cross over so successfully. I feel like his artwork is kind of big, grand, and bombastic, yet the films that he makes are very beautifully sensitive, and I just feel that his filmmaking sensibility is very different from his artwork.

Even today I work with Niall O'Brien, who is far more technically astute than I am, but I still have the clearest idea of every detail I want in my photograph.

I always say, and I truly believe this, that my work is three steps ahead of me. I have an idea for something, and I tend to feel like it's leading me, and I'll follow the process through, and it's not until after I've seen it that I truly understand why I'm doing this.

It's difficult for me to work with women, because I find that direct references are made back to me too fast. Working with men, it gives it a little distance.

When Scorsese or Coppola cast celebrities in their work, it goes without question.

Sometimes when you're looking at your own work, you can't really see, and it's only when you step back a little bit later that you think, 'Oh, that's completely in line with everything else I've done.'

My biggest fears aren't with my work. My biggest fears are walking through hospital doors. Once you can face that, being fearless about your work is easy.

I'm motivated every second by my work; it doesn't switch off.

I'm interested in the acting and staging of specific emotions, and so I work with actors. It's a small proportion of what I do, but it's always what people seem to focus on.

The line between private and public lives is a fertile one for me. I've lived quite a public life, and it's the reason I have used well-known people in my work. I'm interested in what's going on beneath the facades they present to the world, taking them to a place which is uncomfortable.