Charlie Kaufman
Charlie Kaufman
Charles Stuart "Charlie" Kaufmanis an American screenwriter, producer, director, and lyricist. He wrote the films Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. He made his directorial debut with Synecdoche, New York, which was also well-received; film critic Roger Ebert named it "the best movie of the decade" in 2009. It was followed by Anomalisa...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionScreenwriter
Date of Birth19 November 1958
CityNew York City, NY
CountryUnited States of America
I've had to deal, a lot, with my own sense of intimidation at meeting famous people - especially actors, but really any famous people.
I think generally I'm kind of interested in subjective experience, what goes on inside someone's head, that being all they really know of the world.
My point of view comes more from the literature I've read and the comedy of the era. When I was a kid, coming across National Lampoon Magazine, that was a big thing. I suddenly felt like there were other people that felt the way I did, and there was a way of expressing and communicating this worldview.
I don't write genre stuff in any form. I'm not interested in it. I always try to do the opposite of that.
I don't subscribe to anything. I sit there and I try to think about what seems honest to me.
I hate a movie that will end by telling you that the first thing you should do is learn to love yourself. That is so insulting and condescending, and so meaningless. My characters don't learn to love each other or themselves.
There's a point I can get to where I start writing character and then through the dialogue, after all of this preparation, the thing starts to feel like it's a character developing through the dialogue. A lot of character traits do come from writing dialogue, but I have to be ready to do it.
I like titles that are a little difficult, because it's kind of counterintuitive.
I do have, at different times, a certain kind of self-consciousness in the world, an insecurity.
So when I write characters and situations and relationships, I try to sort of utilize what I know about the world, limited as it is, and what I hear from my friends and see with my relatives.
I don't think I've had a lonely moment in my life.
Constantly talking isn't necessarily communicating.
As a kid, I had a background in theater.
I actually think I'm probably more interested in structure than most people who write screenplays, because I think about it.