Jonathan Demme Quotes & Sayings

“A trilogy is a pretty abstract notion. You can apply it to almost any three things.”

“I'm guided by my enthusiasm.”

“I don't think it's sacrilegious to remake any movie, including a good or even great movie.”

“It's such a rich experience when you enter into a subject from a documentary point of view. It's hard for fiction to compete with that.”

“Nothing beats a live performance. Nothing.”

“Documentaries - my God, there is so much going on in our country and in the world today that every time you open the newspaper or turn on the radio or watch the news on TV there is another documentary subject. We're getting the headlines for a second, shaped by corporate delivery most of the time, but what's really the story there?”

“Everything I've made - it doesn't mean they've all been good - but everything I've made so far, big or little, fiction or documentary, has been something that I've been really enthusiastic about.”

“Extraordinary people are the Green Berets and the Navy Seals and the Olympic athletes - these are the ones who can face these extraordinary physical challenges and be triumphant.”

“I also feel that the only thing more gratifying than working with someone who you've worked well with is working with someone new and coming up with something great.”

“I felt from time to time that shooting live music is the most purely cinematic thing you can do. Ideally, the cinema is becoming one with the music. There is little artifice involved. There's no acting. I love it.”