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I learned a tremendous amount about dialogue because I suffered as an actor.
Taylor Sheridan -
Growing up, my mother was a very strong woman who was not very big, about 5'1'', but boy, you grabbed a tiger by the tail if you messed with her. I know grown men that messed with her, and through her wit and intelligence and her no-quit, she never lost a fight. That's very influential on me when I'm telling stories. I love exploring that.
Taylor Sheridan
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My education - my Ph.D. in storytelling - comes from having worked on it, being a lover of film and watching them, from working with some great writers and some very good TV directors and then working with some who weren't.
Taylor Sheridan -
I was surprised by how much I liked 'Hacksaw Ridge' and its depth.
Taylor Sheridan -
Until you've been to Cannes, it's hard to describe to someone the magnitude of that festival.
Taylor Sheridan -
Honest communication is a rare thing.
Taylor Sheridan -
'Kramer vs. Kramer' is one of my favorite films, where you have a story that really juxtaposes a lot of ideas that we have about family and about parenting.
Taylor Sheridan -
Most of us don't confront pure anything. What our life does involve is a whole lot of 60/40 and 70/30.
Taylor Sheridan
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I let characters be human and flawed and relatable. When we do things that aren't that great, we can understand it.
Taylor Sheridan -
In the late '90s, I spent a lot of time on reservations, and there was a level of poverty and injustice that I had not witnessed before. I was shocked by it. This is federally controlled land, and there was an insidious mix of apathy and exploitation.
Taylor Sheridan -
Once I finished 'Sicario,' I knew I wanted to follow it up with 'Hell or High Water.'
Taylor Sheridan -
My job is not to give you all the answers. My job is to ask the questions.
Taylor Sheridan -
I think my mission, if I could call it that, as a storyteller is to try and find ways to show how similar we are and not how different we are.
Taylor Sheridan -
I had three attorneys dedicated solely to find the statistic of the number of missing Native American women on reservations. Any reservation, not just 'Wind River.' They don't exist. The federal government, which is responsible for the reservations, don't keep those stats.
Taylor Sheridan
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Don't try and make a movie for someone else. You have to make it for you and trust that you're not that unique. And that'll matter to other people as well.
Taylor Sheridan -
Unfortunately, there is still much to mine in this world and explore creatively.
Taylor Sheridan -
I think 'In The Heat Of The Night' was one of the most influential films on me. Looking back now, I can see how influential it was on my screenwriting because here you have what looks to be a crime procedural, and it's actually a study in race and loneliness, and a perception of an era.
Taylor Sheridan -
I've been very fortunate with my three spec scripts - which is sort of my thematic trilogy of the American Frontier. With 'Sicario', 'Hell or High Water' and then 'Wind River' - which is the third - there were no rewrites. It was the first draft for all three.
Taylor Sheridan -
Sugarcoating doesn't do anybody any good.
Taylor Sheridan -
I'm a big believer in,'If anyone can understand my politics, I've failed.' If you can get a sense of which side of the fence I'm on, then I'm not doing a service. I'm preaching, and that's not my job.
Taylor Sheridan
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To me, 'Unforgiven' is one of the best films ever made. Aside from the fact it takes the genre and kicks it between its legs, it's this fascinating deconstruction of the myth of the West.
Taylor Sheridan -
When I write a movie, I write it for me.
Taylor Sheridan -
'Sicario' was successful, but it was successful because Denis and the producers were, you know, they were very lean. It was very lean filmmaking.
Taylor Sheridan -
Violence is literally the glue of the cycle of life, and yet I think that we're the only species that does it maliciously.
Taylor Sheridan