Dito Montiel Quotations

When I had jobs, I was always doing manual jobs because I couldn't think. I worked at the docks, unloading trucks, and did ridiculous jobs.

People who go to festivals to watch films are usually a little more eager to enjoy them. It's exciting, because it's like you're going to the film's opening night at every festival.

I spent a lot of time making music and touring around the country and living the weird life. I was just trying to keep a job and get by. So in a lot of ways, I went through a strange version of film school. So you live through a lot of things, and put them into your work.

I'm such a fan of actors, and also enjoy watching them work, so that I can help their acting in any way I can.

You want to be entertaining to some degree. But honesty is always entertaining to me.

To me, the screenplay only becomes the Bible of the film after the actors have been cast.

I like to see people put themselves into films, which is part of the reason why I love Woody Allen films so much-I believe his actors' work. I have a feeling that many actors in his films are similar to their characters, and I like that.

I know that some great actors can transform, and that's fine. But I come from the school of thought that people put a version of themselves in their films.

Whether I'm writing the script, or someone else writes the initial draft, I'm always an actor's director first. I always try to listen to them a lot, and try to put their voices into their character.

If actors are making a little film with me at 2am in Nashville, they're not doing it to get paid. They're doing it because there's something special about the characters, which helps the film become more interesting.

I was too crazy in my teenage years and I wasn't doing anything that made any sense.

Life is tricky - you never know what's going to happen.

Movies are weird; it's like trying to make a painting with one hundred people. It's a weird world, but every job is weird; it's always a little bit hard, crazy and fun, a nice combination.

One of my favorite movies that I've ever seen is '25th Hour.' I love it so much because it's simply about a guy who's going to jail for six years, and this slow, terrible day he has.

I have friends who have had PTSD, and you can get it from other things than war.

I don't ever take a break. I'm always writing.

I wrote music. I was in a hardcore band when I was 14, and I wasn't good enough to play anyone else's songs, so I had to write my own.

I was born in Queens, New York. I've done every job you could think of in New York. Selling peanuts to Larry Fresh Fruit ices to dog walker to unloading trucks at the Jacob Javits Center.

My mother left my father in their late 60s.

I'm such a fan of actors and also enjoy watching them work so that I can help their acting in any way I can. Sometimes it walks a tricky line because you want to be entertaining to some degree. But honesty is always entertaining to me. I'm a big Woody Allen and Spike Lee fan, and I find their films to be very honest.

'Midnight Cowboy' is an exquisite piece of filmmaking. It's insane.

When I was a kid, I was into hardcore music. The scene in New York was tiny. Every person hanging out was in a band and played at the A7 Club. There was not much rehearsing or anything. Just doing.

You make a movie, and if there's a red light flashing in the distance, everyone thinks that the director had a whole lot of money and a great idea that the red light means something. Then you say, 'Yeah, we couldn't afford to shut the red light off that was broken two blocks away.'

A story about my life should not be particularly interesting, but it is: it's just about me and some kids who didn't know how to talk to each other. It's personal but not autobiographical.

Some people have this crazy talent that makes you tap into a human side as well, even with all their fame.

Sometimes I find some movies patronizing, which I feel is the ultimate crime.

You don't get many chances in life to make a movie, and if someone says they don't like it, I say, 'I do'. I've made records before, and if someone said it sucked, it bummed me out.

I've done every job in the world, and movies, the only thing close to a movie that I've ever done is it's kind of like being in a band.

It's weird: making a movie is like life compacted into three months. You have these very intense relationships with people, and you talk to them every day - your editor, the casting people, music people, your actors - then it ends. It's like a circus life.

I love when a scene can almost be boring because it's so honest, you know.

I have no schooling in any normal sense but have learned from the best as far as just doing things. I learned filmmaking from loving movies and then just saying, 'OK, let's do it.'

If you get to bring a little movie on the festival circuit, it's a nice experience because you get to see it with an audience. People who go to festivals to watch films are usually a little more eager to enjoy them. It's exciting because it's like you're going to the film's opening night at every festival.

If you're going to come wanting to work really hard, you're never going to bum me out.

I could hold on to everything for the rest of my life. I don't make friends easy, and I don't lose friends easy.