Films today show only a dream world and have lost touch with the way people really are... In this country, people die at 21. They die emotionally at 21, maybe younger... My responsibility as an artist is to help people get past 21... The films are a roadmap through emotional and intellectual terrain that provides a solution on how to save pain.
John CassavetesI have the confidence that I can take anybody and have them give a good performance, because I don't think there's anything to acting except expressing, being able to converse. So if I can just convince somebody not to clean themselves up, and not to be someone that they're not, and just be what they are in given circumstances, that's all that acting is to me, and I don't think it's very difficult.
John CassavetesIโve never seen an exploding helicopter. Iโve never seen anybody go and blow somebodyโs head off. So why should I make films about them? But I have seen people destroy themselves in the smallest way, Iโve seen people withdraw, Iโve seen people hide behind political ideas, behind dope, behind the sexual revolution, behind fascism, behind hypocrisy, and Iโve myself done all these things. So I can understand them. What we are saying is so gentle. Itโs gentleness. We have problems, terrible problems, but our problems are human problems.
John Cassavetes