Peter Hedges
Is my job as a child, even as an adult, is my job to heal the wounds of my parents' childhoods?
The job in every re-write is to make it harder for your characters to get the thing that they need.
I love films that take place over a short period of time, and I feel that those films are in our cinematic DNA.
I wouldn't say I'm a religious person, but I am definitely inclined toward asking the big questions.
I grew up going to funerals and visiting people in nursing homes. I'm not as afraid of dealing with the dying as maybe some other people may be.
I grew up going to church every Sunday and my mother was a drug and alcohol counselor, so both of my parents' lives have been about helping people at times of crisis.
I've always had an acute sense of mortality, maybe because my father's a minister.
I play this game with my son called Never Seen. We try to see new things every day, and we do. I don't take that for granted.
When I go home to Iowa, people assume I live in this very big anonymous place where no one knows each other or wants to. Truth is, I know my neighbors better in Brooklyn than I ever did in Iowa.
I feel cool when I say I live in Brooklyn.
There are very few topics where I can imagine that you might not find humor. And I was stunned at how much weird and dark humor there was when my mom died.
Maudlin scenes where people pour their heart out to one another? I don't want to see it.
So much of life's dramas, good and bad, play out against family and so it's really inspiring for any number of stories in all the fields I write in.
It's not easy to be a good or wise parent. You do the best you can.
I took a look at my own life and realized that I was overinvesting in my kids. I realized that I had to get out of the way and let them be who they wanted to be, not what I wanted them to be.
Let the story lead you. If the story needs to be dark, let it go dark. If it's a sweet, good-for-the-world story, that's what it is.
I can go years without going to Los Angeles, but I think my living in Brooklyn is critical to my continuing to have a fairly happy life in the film industry.
You could cast nearly any movie in Brooklyn, and now you can film in Brooklyn - for you have studios.
New York just feels real to me, and not everyone is in the movie business.
I would hope that people might view their fellow beings, all beings, with more empathy, more compassion, with a desire to understand. Even if they can't know why people are the way they are, to understand that they're probably that way for a good reason.Collection: Compassion
In a cement park across the street is this giant sculpture. It is a giant umbrella frame lying on its side. It's green. Stand under it, during a rainstorm, you'll still get wet - that's why it's art.Collection: Art
GOOD AS NEW was born out of the idea of writing a play where the stakes were high and the collisions were of a verbal nature. Also I wanted to write a play where people were smarter than I was, and more alive than I feel normally. I became interested in the idea of characters who would surprise me. I guess one could argue that nothing comes out of you that wasn't within you to begin with, but maybe there are ways to trick yourself into becoming more an observer or an advocate for the characters.Collection: Writing
I want to write stories that don't help you escape life, but embrace life.Collection: Writing
People are usually pretty hungry after a funeral. I guess it's because we all realize that time is running out and we better eat all we can. Please don't mention that to my mother.Collection: Mother
There is nothing more depressing than toast that no one eats.Collection: Depressing
People love conversation, and movies are conversations, and an audience has to participate; it has to fill in some blanks.Collection: People
I don't want to write my life. I live my life. I want to make up a new world.Collection: Writing
I spent so many years trying to become an actor, trying to be a person that I wasn't.Collection: Years
I want to make accessible movies for bright people, but I don't want to play games and be coy.Collection: Games
The bigger the budget, the less an audience is trusted, and that's the difference between a big-budget film and a small-budget film.Collection: Differences
My job as a dramatist is to find out where these characters want to go, and make it as hard as possible for them to get there.Collection: Jobs
I've always written for actors, and if you want to write for good actors, you have to write parts that are surprising, that are human, and that allow them to go to a wide range of places.Collection: Writing
I can't stop terrorism; I can't cure cancer. But I can put some stories out there in their own quiet way that talk about tolerance.Collection: Cancer
I feel like there's a certain kind of laughter missing in the world.Collection: Laughter
I think it's a fantastic thing to be alive.Collection: Thinking
I learned early on that there are all sorts of stories I have no place telling.Collection: Stories
I've wanted to direct for a long time, but it had to be a story I wanted to tell. The writer's job is to find the story that he should tell.Collection: Jobs
I don't know anything about directing, but if you love actors, know your story and hire a great company, then anyone can direct a film.Collection: Stories
The better the script, the less money there is. That's just the economics of the studio system.Collection: Scripts