Paul Schrader

Birthday: 22 July 1946, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA

Birth Name: Paul Joseph Schrader

Height: 173 cm

Although his name is often linked to that of the "movie brat" generation (Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Brian De Palma, etc.) Paul Schrader's background couldn't have been more different than theirs. His strict Calvinist parents refused to allow him to see a film until he was 18. Although he more than made up for lost time when studying at Calvin College, Columbia University and UCLA's graduate film program, his influences were far removed from those of his contemporaries--Robert Bresson, Yasujirô Ozu and Carl Theodor Dreyer (about whom he wrote a book, "Transcendental Style in Film") rather than Saturday-morning serials. After a period as a film critic (and protégé of Pauline Kael), he began writing screenplays, hitting the jackpot when he and his brother, Leonard Schrader (a Japanese expert), were paid the then-record sum of $325,000, thus establishing his reputation as one of Hollywood's top screenwriters, which was consolidated when Martin Scorsese filmed Schrader's script Taxi Driver (1976), written in the early 1970s during a bout of drinking and depression. The success of the film allowed Schrader to start directing his own films, which have been notable for their willingness to take stylistic and thematic risks while still working squarely within the Hollywood system. The most original of his films (which he and many others regard as his best) was the Japanese co-production Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985). Show less «

Other college kids had to vandalize government buildings. All we had to do to rebel was go to movies...Show more »

Other college kids had to vandalize government buildings. All we had to do to rebel was go to movies. Show less «

I was raised as a Calvinist, which is doctrine-driven. And though there are many things wrong with C...Show more »

I was raised as a Calvinist, which is doctrine-driven. And though there are many things wrong with Calvinism, you are at least encouraged to argue about things. But once you get into a faith-driven belief system there's not much you can do. They can say to you, for instance, that women have three breasts. And even when you line up 100 women and show them that they only have two breasts, they still say that women have three breasts because they were told it in a dream. And there's nothing you can do about that. Show less «

Every time you think the studios have fucked you every way they can, they come up with a new way.

If you have made a film that has been shelved or discarded, nobody--not your wife or best friend--wi...Show more »

If you have made a film that has been shelved or discarded, nobody--not your wife or best friend--will ever believe it is any good, because they [Hollywood studios] don't discard $35-million investments. Show less «

I killed more screen characters in the first four films I wrote than I have since. I realized I had ...Show more »

I killed more screen characters in the first four films I wrote than I have since. I realized I had to stop writing violence. Show less «

[on acting himself in Dog Eat Dog (2016)] I had no intention of playing The Greek. Over pre-producti...Show more »

[on acting himself in Dog Eat Dog (2016)] I had no intention of playing The Greek. Over pre-production, I approached Michael Douglas, Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese, Nick Nolte, Chris Walken, Jeff Goldblum, Michael Winncot and Rupert Everett to play the Greek as a transgender Cleveland gangster. For one reason or another, none of them worked. I was the only actor we could afford. "I may not be good," I thought, "but at least I'll be interesting." [2016] Show less «

[on Stanley Kubrick] Every time out of the box he had a different dance.

When screenwriting, be prepared to drop your pants and show your dirty laundry. If you can't do that...Show more »

When screenwriting, be prepared to drop your pants and show your dirty laundry. If you can't do that, better find yourself something more polite. Show less «

What fascinates me are people who want to be one thing but who behave in a way contradictory to that...Show more »

What fascinates me are people who want to be one thing but who behave in a way contradictory to that. Who might say, "I want to be happy, but I keep doing things that make me unhappy.". Show less «

[on Robert De Niro's Oscar for Raging Bull (1980)] Dieting is not acting, but DeNiro was the first o...Show more »

[on Robert De Niro's Oscar for Raging Bull (1980)] Dieting is not acting, but DeNiro was the first one to do that kind of thing. It would have been a gimmick if he wasn't so good. But I think it's the gimmick that won him the award. Show less «

I wrote Taxi Driver (1976) as personal therapy, not as a commercial project.

If you write interesting roles, you get interesting people to play them. If you write roles that are...Show more »

If you write interesting roles, you get interesting people to play them. If you write roles that are full of nuance and contradiction and have interesting dialog, actors are drawn to that... You have to have a role where an actor says, "Okay, I'm not going to get as much money as I want, I'm going to have to work on a shorter shooting schedule than I'd like, but the role's really interesting, so let's do it.". Show less «

[on Dog Eat Dog (2016)] The task then was to make Bunker's story feel contemporary. Edward Bunker 's...Show more »

[on Dog Eat Dog (2016)] The task then was to make Bunker's story feel contemporary. Edward Bunker 's sensibility was forged in the '70s, Dog was set in the '90s - so what to do? Matt Wilder's beautifully manic script showed the way. I assembled a young creative team cut to bring energy to Ed Bunker's dark story. It was the first solo credit for each department head: cinematography, production design, wardrobe, editorial, associate producer, composer. These were members of what I called the postrules generation. They didn't want to break rules. They didn't even know there were rules. I instructed them: "We don't have the money to make this film in a studio fashion. That's the bad news. The good news is we can make any damn film we want. Surprise me. The only thing forbidden is to be boring." [2016] Show less «

[on how he and brother Leonard Schrader used storytelling as one of their few amusements allowed in ...Show more »

[on how he and brother Leonard Schrader used storytelling as one of their few amusements allowed in his strict Calvinist home] We came from a background of storytellers and we were very good at that. Show less «

As screenwriters, we struggle with our own success. We have wallpapered our world and now we can't g...Show more »

As screenwriters, we struggle with our own success. We have wallpapered our world and now we can't get anyone to notice the picture we just hung. Show less «

[commenting on the technical advances in cinema] We are now in a crisis of technology--we don't know...Show more »

[commenting on the technical advances in cinema] We are now in a crisis of technology--we don't know quite what a movie is. We are re-wiring our brains so we can live with the machines we've made. Show less «

In this business, you've got to have a selective memory. Otherwise, it's too painful.

[on Blue Collar (1978)] People who act against their own best interests are interesting characters.

[on the character of Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver (1976)] When I set out to write the script I thoug...Show more »

[on the character of Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver (1976)] When I set out to write the script I thought it was about loneliness. As I wrote it I realized it was about something a little different and more interesting: self-imposed loneliness, a syndrome of behavior that reinforces itself. And the touchstones of that kind of behavior are all kinds of contradictory impulses. Puristanism and pornography at the same time... "I've got to get healthy" while popping pills at the same time... That dreadful diet... It's full of these things that he does to make sure he'll never get to where he's going... so he can reinforce his own doomed condition. Show less «

We believed in a very real hell and very real evil. My mother took my hand once and stabbed me with ...Show more »

We believed in a very real hell and very real evil. My mother took my hand once and stabbed me with a needle. She said, "You know how that felt, when the needle hit your thumb? Well, hell is like that... all the time!". Show less «

At the time I wrote it [Taxi Driver (1976)], I was in a rather low and bad place. I had broken with ...Show more »

At the time I wrote it [Taxi Driver (1976)], I was in a rather low and bad place. I had broken with Pauline [film critic Pauline Kael], I had broken with my wife, I had broken with the woman I left my wife for, I had broken with the American Film Institute and I was in debt. Show less «

Everything we've learned in the last 100 years in filmmaking is useless. We don't know what we do, w...Show more »

Everything we've learned in the last 100 years in filmmaking is useless. We don't know what we do, what a movie is, where we see it... The notion of the writer is up for grabs. They created this art form. Now there are no rules... There's one left: Storytelling works. [2016] Show less «

Paul Schrader

Paul Schrader's FILMOGRAPHY

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