Paul Haggis

Paul Haggis
Paul Edward Haggisis a Canadian director, screenwriter, and producer. He is best known as screenwriter and producer for consecutive Best Picture Oscar winners, 2004's Million Dollar Baby and 2005's Crash, the latter of which he also directed...
NationalityCanadian
ProfessionScreenwriter
Date of Birth10 March 1953
CityLondon, Canada
CountryCanada
advice be-careful careful
You have to be careful of the advice you take.
character wanted
When I started to allow the characters to go where they wanted to go, I just had to follow.
pride thinking blindness
We think we know what's right. With excessive pride comes blindness.
war men faults
This is our fault. My fault as much as the next man's, because even if I was against the war, I didn't do enough to stop it.
honor phrases want
The wrong one will start saying things like "withdraw with honor." We've heard phrases like that before, and they led to thousands and thousands of deaths. Democrats always want to look tough...
mind world persons
If you change the right mind, then that person can perhaps change the world.
ready audience
You don't do pictures because the audience is ready for them. You do them because there's something gnawing at you, something inside.
team independent independence
Independent films are very hard to get made, but I'm lucky enough to get them made, so I'm going to keep doing it. I like my independence. I like being able to tell a story the way I want to tell a story. I don't like developing it with a team. I like coming to a story and deciding whether I want to do it or not.
son two house
I found two true stories. One was in 2003. One was the beginning of 2004. I decided to meld them. Richard Davis' story which is the largest portion of this, a lot of the events are exactly as you saw, exactly what happened and the locations. Exactly as it was said with the chicken house and the strip club. Richard's parents were on the set and they'll tell you that the story is different than their son's. I was very concerned because I called them to say, 'You understand I'm fictionalizing this story?
war long-ago car
I optioned the magazine article. That was end of 2003. It was a time when the war was incredibly popular here and everyone was driving around with flags on their car, if you remember not too long ago.
country war responsibility
If you make a film and then two and a half, three years later, suddenly the country's changed and you look like you just happened to hit it. I actually like being contrarian. I would have preferred to come out three years ago when everyone was disagreeing with me. But hopefully it asks a lot of questions about our responsibility in sending young men and women to war, especially a war that's so complex, where there's no right answer, where they're forced with impossible decisions every day.
thinking you-think-you-know knows
As soon as you think you know Clint Eastwood, you don't know Clint Eastwood.
home men facts
What happens when these young men and women come home so scarred and so wounded? We are ignoring that fact. We're just shoving them under the carpet.
answers audience
I like to really respect the audience and let them come through on answers.