I try to get the best performance an actor can give.

You’d be surprised how many movie stars still care about the work.

I’m not in front of the camera, they are. I encourage them; I build up as much of their confidence and ego as possible. They’ve got to take control; I can’t act it out.

When you’re working in Hollywood you have these actors who go to their trailers, they’re getting paid millions of dollars, they act like spoiled children. They don’t really want to work. And the crew knows...

It isn’t glamorous until after the film is finished, and you are at the premiere and getting your picture on the cover of magazines.

Russell Crowe is very difficult, but it’s worth it. He’s the real thing. I can tell you this. Russell Crowe was just as difficult before he was an international star as he was afterwards.

This devil loves mankind because men are going to always make the choice that will send him into ascendancy. He’s been winning the game for a long time.

When Ray Charles is concentrating he’s like a piece of granite, nothing twitches, nothing, … He sat for 25 minutes solid like that, like a stone, and I thought, ‘Oh my God, if he doesn’t...

It’s much easier to work with an unknown.

[Carmen] is not a sweet, nice girl. This is a piece about a criminal. We want to do a tough, hard version, but Hollywood thinks the audience [for Jennifer Lopez] is 13-year-old girls. … It...

If people are worried about the size of their trailers, I kind of say their priorities are off.

But Bruckheimer didn’t wilt. He said just do it without them. The great thing for me is that Jerry Bruckheimer and his team gave me all the help I needed and then they left me...

Look at Walter Huston in The Devil and Daniel Webster: It’s an incredible performance.

Because when you have millions of people with this kind of need for gratification, and the culture is saying that it’s possible for everyone to satisfy all of their needs and desires all of the...

I had to go to Ray every year and apologize. And he was so wise in his way, he said, ‘Taylor, don’t worry, it will happen when it’s ready to happen,’

Music has always been an important thing to me in my life and understand I’ve worked in the music business.

I’m always interested in the working class people. I am one. They’re subjugated, they’re paid very little and they can make it in show biz.

Show business is one of those things that people can use to get themselves out of the lower rung of society.

I really believe you can predict when someone has a great attitude, a real well of talent.

Staying Alive.

The whole concept of the devil is a metaphor on one level.

It’s all about the same thing, being able to pull people into a situation where you have a vision, and transport that vision off the page.

The director’s job should give you a sense of music without drawing attention to itself.

My creative partner is a writer, and he’s got an executive producing credit on this film. We’ve made three films together and I would never underestimate the impact of a writer.

Supernatural.

But a writer’s contribution is literary and a film is not literary. When you take that stuff off the page, and cast the people who are going to fit into those roles, that’s what being...

Our society gives power to people who are successful. All of a sudden, if you’ve created something unique and interesting, you’re set apart.

An actor has to embody a role.

And it’s a question of how far we’re willing to go in order to let the ego shine, in order to let that beacon penetrate not only the local scene but the world.

The story of Ray Charles is the world underestimating him. … Everyone ultimately kept saying [to him] … you really shouldn’t be able to do anything because you’re a cripple,

I also know what looks good before the camera, how to move the camera, and how to get a story on the screen.

That whole process of somebody who has all that charisma and talent, to be able to break through and make it in America is fabulous.

But the process of making a film is not glamorous. Certainly not my films.

But, unfortunately, sometimes that affirmation creates a sense that you deserve special treatment and recognition in areas where you’re not so talented.

I think it speaks to the greatness of the man that he truly gave me the gift of allowing me to tell the story warts and all, … To be able to see the good,...

I feel very comfortable shooting music, and I think you can see that.

We all get paid very, very well, and we have responsibilities.

It’s very clearly stated in the film: You make your own choices, and what you’re always fighting is ego.

I heard his story and I thought, ‘My God, this is a great subject for a film,’

It was the era of Tab Hunter and Rock Hudson; they all had a certain look.

Well I don’t think I’ve scored my life exclusively to Ray Charles.

The SAS is the most elite of the special forces in the world. They are not people who go out and advertise; they keep it inside. They don’t want anybody to know about them.

If you are making a film about a very famous individual you live or die by the person that’s going to play the main role, … In this film I’m in big trouble because everyone...

I make films about working class people.

When I finish a film, I put it away and I never look at it again.

Ray Charles, in his own way, it’s like at the beginning, Ray Charles changed American music, not once but twice.

I trusted my instincts here, but I’m not stupid. The next thing I did was throw him into the shark tank, … I threw him in with Ray Charles.