Charlie Kaufman Quotes

• Do I have an original thought in my head? My bald head. Maybe if I were happier, my hair wouldn’t be falling out.

  Charlie Kaufman

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Writing

• When I’m writing, I’m trying to immerse myself in the chaos of an emotional experience, rather than separate myself from it and look back at it from a distance with clarity and tell it as a story. Because that’s how life is lived, you know?

  Charlie Kaufman

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Myself, Emotional, Trying

• We have the script, we have the actors, and we’re trying to figure out what this is, and you don’t know what it is. You have to be open to what it’s going to become rather than have this thing that you’re trying to get to, which is boring.

  Charlie Kaufman

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Boring, Trying, Become

• There’s this inherent screenplay structure that everyone seems to be stuck on, this three-act thing. It doesn’t really interest me. To me, it’s kind of like saying, ‘Well, when you do a painting, you always need to have sky here, the person here and the ground here.’ Well, you don’t.

  Charlie Kaufman

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Person, Saying, Need

• There’s theater in life, obviously, and there’s life in theater.

  Charlie Kaufman

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Theater, Obviously

• There’s no way to approach anything in an objective way. We’re completely subjective; our view of the world is completely controlled by who we are as human beings, as men or women, by our age, our history, our profession, by the state of the world.

  Charlie Kaufman

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Women, Human, World

• The way I write is very much without kind of a goal. I have something I’m interested in and then I decide I’m going to explore it. I don’t know where the characters are going to go, I don’t know what the movie is going to do or what the screenplay is going to do. For me, that’s the way to keep it alive.

  Charlie Kaufman

  Topics in Goal

  Tags in Without, Kind, Keep

• The only honest and generous thing for me to do is to give people myself. That’s all I’ve got as an artist, so I want to do that in an unflinching way.

  Charlie Kaufman

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Myself, Honest

• Sometimes I don’t like the books that I’m reading.

  Charlie Kaufman

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Sometimes, Reading

• My time on the set is the least of my involvement. Most of my time is in pre-production and post-production.

  Charlie Kaufman

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Production, Time

• It occurred to me that every work of art is a synecdoche, there’s no way around it. Every creative work that someone does can only represent an aspect of the whole of something. I can’t think of an exception to that.

  Charlie Kaufman

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Someone, Represent

• In a lot of movies, especially big studio ones, they’re not constructed in any other way than to get people to like them and then tell their friends. It’s a product.

  Charlie Kaufman

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Friends, Tell, People

• If you create something that is asking for people to respond as they’re going to respond, you have to allow them to respond as they’re going to respond. Some of the people are going to be uninterested and some people are going to be mad for some reason, which is their business. That’s just the way the world is.

  Charlie Kaufman

  Topics in Business

  Tags in Reason, Respond

• I’ve kind of come to the conclusion that what passes for realism in movies has nothing to do with reality and that my stuff is more realistic than that.

  Charlie Kaufman

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Nothing, Reality

• I’ve had to deal, a lot, with my own sense of intimidation at meeting famous people – especially actors, but really any famous people.

  Charlie Kaufman

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Sense, Meeting, People

• I’m trying to tell a story and do it truthfully.

  Charlie Kaufman

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Trying, Story

• I’m old enough, by a long shot, to remember going to the library and spending days researching. If I was looking for a line from a poem or something else I needed, that would be the trip I would have to take.

  Charlie Kaufman

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Long, Enough, Remember

• I’m not into extreme sports or something. I just live a quiet life.

  Charlie Kaufman

  Topics in Sports

  Tags in Live, Extreme

• I’m interested in trying to explore what I think is the truth at a given time in my life, and part of the process of being honest is – in my mind – talking about the idea that you’re watching a movie. You’re sitting here watching a movie. And I like that. It appeals to me intellectually, and also in a way I can’t even explain.

  Charlie Kaufman

  Topics in Truth

  Tags in Trying, Explain, Mind

• I’m in my mind a lot. I live there.

  Charlie Kaufman

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Live, Mind

Charlie Kaufman (64)

Birth:	19th November, 1958
Nationality:	American
Profession:	Film Director, Lyricist, Producer, Screenwriter

About

Charles Stuart "Charlie" Kaufman was born in New York City, New York. He is an American screenwriter, producer, film director, and lyricist. He wrote the critically acclaimed films Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. He won two BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplays, one BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and a Saturn Award for Best Writing. He worked as a writer for Ned and Stacey and The Dana Carvey Show.

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