Quotes from Todd Haynes

I don't think there's any more synesthetic medium than film.

You have to be somewhat ruthless with your work. You have to let things go. Even your favourite little part might not work in the end.

Every actor prepares differently and to different degrees of privacy. Some want to talk everything out. Others really don't want to talk anything out - or rehearse much.

You can be a smarty-pants director, but that won't matter if the movie doesn't work emotionally as well as intellectually.

Making a movie about the love between two women was really a tribute to the lesbian people in my life, my dear friends who are seminal in my life.

I think it remains a film-by-film process, and since I am relatively selective and slow, it can take a while.

I'm a great admirer, fan and consumer of television. I love serial drama. I have been a major fan of HBO's series for many years.

I always learn a lot when I do so. You know, when you step out of your comfort zone and even your cynical zone, and open yourself up to what other people might experience and why they do so.

I made little Super 8 extravaganzas when I was a kid, the first being my own version of 'Romeo and Juliet,' and where I played all the parts except for Juliet.

There were interesting ways that queerness could hide out and get played out pre-Stonewall. It is part of a vast history that is getting forgotten quickly as we trumpet forward into gay marriage and gays in the military and a much different cultural attitude toward gay lives.

You always feel like rock critics are frustrated musicians. I envy musicians their ability to live their art and share it with an audience, in the moment.

I'll never forget watching 'I'm Not There' with Cate Blanchett, because it was the first time she saw the finished film and saw her performance in it. I was sitting next to her experiencing it vicariously through her fresh eyes and hoping she liked it.