Quotes by Stephen Daldry

In issues of recent ethnic wars and genocides - particularly if you look at Darfur - one of the most remarkable things is our inability to act, still, despite the years of analyzing and re-analyzing what it does to subsequent generations. We still find a massive inability to step in and step up to the plate, when genocide is happening as we speak.

— Stephen Daldry

Wisdom

I always say, 'I really need to take a break.' It's three days in and I'm getting pretty bored.

— Stephen Daldry

Wisdom

I am, in fact, Superman. Every morning I wake up and go into a telephone booth and change my costume, and then go to work.

— Stephen Daldry

Success

One of the great joys of my job is that you spend a huge amount of time investigating different areas of literature.

— Stephen Daldry

Happiness

There has been one defining production for me in each decade.

— Stephen Daldry

Wisdom

You go through a process of refinement and getting rid of the excesses of your early youth in terms of your excitement about what theatre can do.

— Stephen Daldry

Wisdom

The really successful work in England tends to be working-class writers telling working-class stories. The film industry has been slow to wake up to that, for a variety of reasons. It still shocks me how few films are written or made in England about working-class life, given that those are the people who go to movies.

— Stephen Daldry

Success

I love changing. I hate it when people try to box me in to a relationship or in a work context. Any situation where I feel boxed in freaks me out. And I feel the need to reinvent myself or I'll get bored.

— Stephen Daldry

Love

Most theater methodology is predicated on the idea of repeated actions. That's what you work toward. Having the actor repeat the same moment eight times a week. In a film, it's getting that one moment right.

— Stephen Daldry

Success

The truth of the matter is, every film is imperfect. It's the nature of the beast. One of the things that people ask me all the time is, what's the difference between theater and film, and one of the biggest differences is, in the theater you always get another go.

— Stephen Daldry

Truth

They're a redefinition of boredom... the most important thing you need to know about an awards show is where is the nearest smoking opportunity.

— Stephen Daldry

Wisdom

Actually, to be honest, this is a useful time to not be knowing what I'll be doing in 2013 or 2014, because really, for the last however many years, I've known what I've been doing for years and years ahead. You get into a cycle of non-reflection, and that gets a bit scary.

— Stephen Daldry

Truth

As soon as I know how to do something, I usually get bored with it.

— Stephen Daldry

Wisdom

I categorically resist this idea that films are supposed to be autobiographical and the only stories you tell are about your own life.

— Stephen Daldry

Life

I have never been motivated by money in my life. You can't make choices based on what the financial return might be.

— Stephen Daldry

Life

I would love to do something for TV... I wanna do 'Kavalier & Clay' on HBO as an eight-parter. It'll be so much better as a series, honestly.

— Stephen Daldry

Love

Ring up your parents and ring up your kids and tell them that you love them.

— Stephen Daldry

Love

When I got married, my mother was very surprised. She said: 'What on earth is going on? I thought you were gay?'

— Stephen Daldry

Wisdom

I spent a little time in Germany as a schoolboy learning German, and it's a country I knew very well, spent a lot of time in. I knew the history very well. I've always wanted to do a piece of work about the post-war period, of one sort or another.

— Stephen Daldry

Success

At school, I decided I wanted to be a director and then I went out and spent the rest of my adult life trying to be a director. It was really clear to me. So in that sense I was very lucky.

— Stephen Daldry

Life

England is strictly class-based. What's surprising is how many films are still made with a load of people in silly frocks running around gardens and talking in middle-class accents.

— Stephen Daldry

Wisdom

Every now and then I have to teach directing. The thing about the theatre is that the most important thing you can do as a director is to make sure that everybody is in the same world - you have to create the world and make sure everyone buys into it.

— Stephen Daldry

Life

I love test screenings. Some directors don't, I know. But I love it. I think it's because I come from the theatre and in the theatre, previews are where you really have to listen to the audience and really feel how they're responding. I found our test screenings incredibly useful.

— Stephen Daldry

Love

I never want to make a film. I don't wake up in the morning going, 'Ooh, I'd really love to be on set making a film today'. I'm aware that other contemporary film directors perceive film-making as what they do, as what they have to do. But I would hope that I am more catholic in my tastes.

— Stephen Daldry

Love