Neil Labute Quotes

If we put the camera on ourselves, our friends and neighbors, we'll come up with some scary stuff.

I would be more frightened as a writer if people thought my movies were like science fiction.

I was always looking for the most dramatic emphasis.

I wanted to tell a story that interested me as much in the telling as in the watching.

I wanted to make these people real, not like they were in a painting. Like these are people who don't know they're in a period movie. Those concerns are incredibly immediate.

I think the more the actor lets you know what he thinks of the character, the less the audience cares - like a comedian who laughs at his own jokes.

I think Christine and Chad are on the opposite extremes of the spectrum. Christine is a model victim, and Chad is a model perpetrator, and Howard is closer to the middle.

I see bits and pieces of me in all the characters in my films.

I make movies I want to see.

I have a healthy view of what one can do with art.

I didn't choose BYU, I like to think it chose me.

First I would probably place men at the bottom of the food chain. On a grander scale, I would say they're reacting to change. Feminism has got to be part of that.

Everyone has a story.

Everyone has a little bit of Howard and Chad in them. I think there's Christine in all men as well.

But for me, it feels like a natural extension of what I've been doing: exploring relationships. Here you have two relationships and we can explore how difficult it is for people to be together.

But even with a character like Cary who is relatively outlandish, at the end of the movie he's in a place where I wouldn't have expected him to be - taking on the responsibility of a woman who is pregnant and who used to be his best friend's wife.

And with Aaron, I'd have to find a reason not to work with him.

And I've got some screenplays and plays ready to dip into when I need to.

My best male friend is my best friend until he crosses me. We're all protective of the self.

I'm more than open to hope, but I think men and women have a difficult time dealing with each other and often take the low road.

I was very careful to cast guys who were very good-looking and very fit and who had a certain sense of privilege about them, because with that sense of privilege comes contempt.

I will say that the idea of a woman being deceptive came from that original discussion with critics and reporters about if woman could do that kind of thing. Evelyn, herself, grew out of the discussions about how capable women are of deceit and lying and manipulation.

Everybody has the ability to be manipulative, to be hateful and deceitful.

We live in a disposable society. It's easier to throw things out than to fix them. We even give it a name - we call it recycling.

In a relationship you have to open yourself up.