Top 105 Quotes & Sayings by Leigh Whannell - Page 2

When 'Psycho' came out back in 1960, it was seen as an abomination and as this really gory thing. We all watch 'Psycho' today, of course, and think it's so tame since there's no blood or any real gore in it. But for the standards of the day when it was released, it was extreme.

I was influenced by people like David Fincher and William Friedkin, and these directors who kinda paint their films with these dark shades.

I think you can't help but write in your own voice.

Certain stories need the resources of a studio. If you're telling a story about a giant robot war in outer space, you're going to need the money and the resources most of the time to do it justice.

I'm the opposite of the actor that is bursting with confidence who just knows they're going to make it. I'm the guy who's like yeah, probably, it won't happen.

Freddie Kruger, Jason, Michael Myers - they're all our generation. I think the kids wanted some new guys that they could take ownership of and Jigsaw was that guy.

I think true connectivity is something that is rare in sequels. I mean I love the first 'Die Hard' film; you won't find a bigger 'Die Hard' fan than me. But I feel like with the sequels, they're just taking that character and dropping him in different scenarios. There's no real connective tissue.

In chatting to directors over the years, including James Wan, they always tell you the war stories. No one ever says, 'Oh, I had a great time on that film.' It's always this went wrong, that went wrong.

You know you've have a good idea when you're lying awake at night going 'someone else is going to take it, I just know it!'

If you chose to be an actor, if you take that baton and say 'OK, this is what I want to do with my life.' you're really putting your fate and your life in the hands of others.

I mean I met James Wan at film school. That's where we met. I didn't go to film school to find someone else to work with. I was thinking I would go and learn to direct and go and be a director like everyone else at school.

One of our film lecturers, one of the guys teaching the course, said to the departing film class, 'No one in this room is going to make it, as a filmmaker.' I have no idea why he said that.

A lot of the fear about being a first-time director is just starting with a completely blank slate and thinking: 'Is this going to connect with anybody?'

I think, what happened with 'Dead Silence' is that other people told us that we should be doing that and now that I look back, I realize, 'should' is not a word that comes into an art. It's whatever you're feeling like doing.

I just try to write literally what I love. That's usually the barometer that I use. As trite as it sounds, I'm like, 'what would I want to see? What would I be excited about?'

I do try and keep my scripts quite economical.

Supernatural films allow you to bend the rules of time and space - that's really fun, especially for screenwriters who often get shot down for logic reasons.

Saw' definitely had an edge to it that wasn't American.

I couldn't believe that people went to see 'Saw,' that people actually lined up.

Somewhere in the '80s during the home video era something happened and horror started getting more and more marginalized and thought of as schlock.

A lot of times when a film is a success, the fans of that film take ownership of it - it becomes their property.

That's one of the great things about creativity. You labor away in a room, and when you're writing a film, it couldn't be more of a solitary activity or a lonelier job, but if you then write a film that gets made and goes out into the world, it kind of flies away from you. It's not yours anymore.

In a lot of ways knowledge kills fear. Once you know who the boogie man is, once you know what's under the bed, it can still be frightening but that fear of the unknown is gone.

If you go back and watch 'Saw,' I was very young. I'd never really done anything before.

When the whole 'Saw' thing died down, I feel like I had praise withdrawals. I had never been congratulated so much on something in my life. So, it was a really amazing whirlwind when 'Saw' came out.

After 'Saw,' we got offered every horror remake under the sun, and I was just always thinking, 'I don't see how this could be interesting for me.'

Once I have a story idea I like it doesn't even matter to me what genre it is, I'm just so happy to have one.

I think repetition is the hardest thing to avoid with sequels, because you've told a story and now you're adding more story to the story.

As I was writing 'Insidious 3' I started to fall in love with the characters and the story. I became very possessive of it and I didn't want someone else to do it.

I think horror is a genre that can be quite good to women.

I grew up in Melbourne.

It's a weird little anomaly about horror films in that the more money and noise you have, the less scary it gets.

I found myself in this conundrum of loving acting, but not liking the path that you have to take to do it. I was just never good at auditioning, so basically I decided I would just write my own stuff and if I could get a role in it, then fine.

I wasn't a frustrated writer who really wanted to act or a frustrated writer who really wanted to direct. I was really happy writing screenplays, and there's a lot of people who just do that - they're screenwriters.

You might not have the biggest budget or resources or cast, but if you have a great story, people will latch onto it.

The great thing about horror films is that they work on a low budget. The genre is the star. You don't need big movie stars, and I actually think a lot of times that the best horror films are the low budget contained ones.

You can't compare David Cronenberg's 'The Fly' to the older version.

Any movie that deals with an AI computer voice stands in the long, long shadow of '2001.'

I love, and I've always loved, contained sci-fi films that utilize practical effects. I feel like the human eye can tell when something is actually in the frame and when it was inserted digitally later.

I think the way to create a lot of terror in a haunted house film is to have a bunch of people who have no idea what's happening to them, and you sort of live the movie through their eyes.

Horror films are very functional like comedies. The main thing with a comedy, the big question is "is it funny?" And with horror the question is "is it scary?"

I love watching audiences scream. I imagine it's the same joy that a director feels who has made a comedy when he or she is sitting at the back of a theater listening to the audience laugh. That sound of laughter is so sweet to a comedy director and that's exactly how a horror film feels when you hear the audience scream.

The problem with acting is that there's really no control. You're at the behest of others. Everyone else decides if you did a good job and you have to wait for other people's permission to work as an actor.

I remember telling ghost stories with my cousins when I was four, five, six-years-old. I've just always loved it. But I think you're drawn to things you're terrified of.

What I love about writing is that you don't need anyone's permission to do it. You can just get up in the morning, grab a pad and pen and start writing. With acting you're really beholden to everyone else.