Quotes by Paul Haggis

For me, the most interesting people are ones who often work against their best interests. Bad choices. They go in directions where you go, 'No no no nooo!' You push away someone who is trying to love you, you hurt someone who's trying to get your trust, or you love someone you shouldn't.

— Paul Haggis

Love

I don't think it's the job of filmmakers to give anybody answers. I do think, though, that a good film makes you ask questions of yourself as you leave the theatre.

— Paul Haggis

Wisdom

I am really drawn to damaged characters, and I have a lot of sympathy for them. Making those complicated characters empathetic is something to strive for. It's too easy to create a good guy or a good girl.

— Paul Haggis

Wisdom

I like to write about things about which I have no answers, questions that trouble me. These things trouble me.

— Paul Haggis

Wisdom

We all have these tendencies in us that could go this way or that. I think that's the real key in writing. To look at a character without judgment.

— Paul Haggis

Wisdom

We give you characters we'd feel very comfortable judging, and then go: 'Oh yeah? Watch this'.

— Paul Haggis

Wisdom

I don't know if 'Crash' is a good movie or not because I didn't set out to make a movie. Really, what I wanted to do is more of a social experiment.

— Paul Haggis

Wisdom

You have to have empathy, knowledge and compassion for your characters if you're a writer.

— Paul Haggis

Education

Film is an emotional medium; it's not a logical medium. It's not an intellectual medium, so every decision you make as a filmmaker and an actor has to be emotional in some way, even in the rejection of logic.

— Paul Haggis

Wisdom

I have never pretended to be the best Scientologist, but I openly and vigorously defended the church whenever it was criticized, as I railed against the kind of intolerance that I believed was directed against it. I had my disagreements, but I dealt with them internally.

— Paul Haggis

Wisdom

I moved to Hollywood when I was 22. I was married. I had a kid right away. And I had worked as a furniture mover amongst various other jobs, and I'd work eight, ten hours a day to support my family - and I'd come home and write for two hours a night or two and a half, or three hours a night.

— Paul Haggis

Success

In Scientology, in the Ethics Conditions, as you go down from Normal through Doubt, then you get to Enemy, and, finally, near the bottom, there is Treason.

— Paul Haggis

Wisdom

I miss my mother very, very much.

— Paul Haggis

Wisdom

As a general rule, I don't plan to travel with my Oscars, but we may have to make an exception.

— Paul Haggis

Wisdom

We're trying to reinvent Bond. He's 28 - no Q, no gadgets.

— Paul Haggis

Wisdom

The wonderful thing about Clint is you can never second guess how he is going to react to anything.

— Paul Haggis

Wisdom

Unless I'm really uneasy with what I'm writing, I lose interest very quickly.

— Paul Haggis

Wisdom

I just asked myself, what piece of that man's soul did he just chew off and swallow to get next week's assignment? You know, just to live, just to work as an artist, or to feed the family?

— Paul Haggis

Success

I was trying to talk about where we are right now as a society, and talk about the fear we all live in, and certainly since 9-11, how it's affected us and the world.

— Paul Haggis

Courage

As artists, we have to be brave. If we aren't brave, we aren't artists.

— Paul Haggis

Courage

Even a modicum of celebrity is hard to deal with. You see it with actors and directors all the time.

— Paul Haggis

Wisdom

Even in a comedy, you have to make people feel. You have to put your hand inside their soul and twist out their heart.

— Paul Haggis

Love

Every 10 years, I know less about love and relationships. The smarter I get, the less I know.

— Paul Haggis

Love

I don't pay much attention to the press. My films always get good reviews and bad reviews. I just try to make the best film I can.

— Paul Haggis

Wisdom