Paul Schrader
Paul Schrader
Paul Joseph Schraderis an American screenwriter, film director, and film critic. Schrader wrote or co-wrote screenplays for four Martin Scorsese films: Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The Last Temptation of Christand Bringing Out the Dead. Schrader has also directed 18 feature films, including his directing debut crime drama, Blue Collar, the somewhat autobiographical crime drama Hardcore, his 1982 remake of the horror classic Cat People, the crime drama American Gigolo, the biographical drama Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, the cult...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionDirector
Date of Birth22 July 1946
CityGrand Rapids, MI
CountryUnited States of America
I could be just a writer very easily. I am not a writer. I am a screenwriter, which is half a filmmaker... But it is not an art form, because screenplays are not works of art. They are invitations to others to collaborate on a work of art.
Once you have a situation that is fresh, then you sort of believe in it and it becomes normal. So you do end up with protagonists that haven't been in other movies before.
I teach a course in screenwriting at Columbia, but I've never taken a course and I've never read a book about it!
If you write interesting roles, you get interesting people to play them. If you write roles that are full of nuance and contradiction and have interesting dialog, actors are drawn to that.
I would not have made any of my films or written scripts such as Taxi Driver had it not been for Ingmar Bergman, What he has left is a legacy greater than any other director.... I think the extraordinary thing that Bergman will be remembered for, other than his body of work, was that he probably did more than anyone to make cinema a medium of personal and introspective value.
Contradiction is the heart and soul of character and drama. You're always looking for it. I loved her so much I hit her; that's character. I loved her so much I hit her again; that's even more character.
The secret of the creative life is how to feel at ease with your own embarrassment. We're all in the dirty laundry business and we're being paid to take risks and look silly. Race car drivers get paid to risk their lives in a more concrete way; we get paid to risk our lives in an emotional way.
Screenplays are not works of art. They are invitations to others to collaborate on a work of art.
The secret of the creative life is to feel at ease with your own embarrassment.