I would say the only one person I know of who kind of combines the elements that my father brought to the table in terms of affecting the public discourse would be Oliver Stone. His combination of academic brilliance and real life experience and just understanding people I think is what makes him such a great storyteller, but also he cares. He is interested. He meets somebody and he listens to them. He has some questions. He wants to know what they're about. And as a result I think his worldview is much more complex and whole and most of the other.
John Buffalo MailerThe thing is, to try to talk about a performance that will never be seen again, that was only lived by the people there, it's kind of like telling somebody about your dream. You know if they love you they'll listen and smile, but they can't really get it, so there is a certain infinite quality to film that is nice. You do the work and you know it's always going to be there. The flip side is if you do bad work it's always going to be there.
John Buffalo MailerI'm probably most proud of the plays that I've written just because as the playwright, you know, you're God. You get to do everything. You don't make any money hardly at all, but you really get to kind of control the scene.
John Buffalo MailerI was about 20 when my mom got sick with cancer and it was bad. It was very scary and at the time I was doing my first screenplay and I was on deadline and was alone with my father in Massachusetts. I said, "Pop, you know, I don't how I'm going to work. I don't know how I can get this done. You know, I got to hand this script in and I can't think about anything but Mom." He said, "Well, you know, now is the time when you're going to learn what it means to compartmentalize." And those words really had an impact on me.
John Buffalo MailerWhat it means to be a man is to take on all the emotional pain and work through what you got to work through with the people you love while at the same time getting your business done. And it's tough. I think that most children when they grow up they kind of realize that the things they didn't like about their parents or didn't understand about them they get now and that you know every year you get more responsibilities. You get more overhead. You get more things you got to take care off.
John Buffalo Mailer