Alexander Payne

The most heinous shift in American films is that they reinforce good things like 'couples' and 'relationships.' ”

When you watch a movie, you don't want to feel like a machine made it. You want to feel a soul. ”

If you were falling in love and you could go back in time and relive a day and see the banal things you did that you'd forgotten about, you'd weep, looking at that day. ”

I mean, look, I love movies, not just the ones I make... In fact, I don't like the movies I make very much. ”

In the moment of making films, I want to share my observations of life, not of other films. ”

Well, that's what life is - this collection of extraordinarily ordinary moments. We just need to pay attention to them all. Wake up and pay attention to how beautiful it all is. ”

I guess maybe I try to make movies that are closer to real life than are many Hollywood movies. But I still try to stay within a commercial narrative, a contemporary American vernacular. ”

If you're trying to recreate life, the life that you best know is the one you grew up with. ”

Life mixes tones all the time. ”

You just never know when you're living in a golden age. ”