R. J. Cutler Quotes

"I was watching 'The September Issue' in the back of a theater in New York, and I thought, 'I know I really can do this with actors.'"

"If ever we deserved a candidate at this moment in our culture, that candidate is Donald Trump."

"Living in L.A. keeps me in my car a lot, and I'm constantly flipping back and forth between the following Sirius/XM Radio stations: NFL Radio, MLB Radio, POTUS, MSNBC, CNN, and Fox News."

"Throughout the day, I frequently use my iPhone to check 'Deadline Hollywood' and my Twitter feed, as well as the 'Daily Beast,' the 'New York Times,' 'Metsblog,' and 'Thejetsblog.'"

"I record the following shows on a daily basis and watch them when I have the time/inclination: 'The Daily Show,' Rachel Maddow, 'Hardball,' 'The Colbert Report,' 'The O'Reilly Factor,' David Letterman."

"If I had to name my favorite media personality, it would be a tie between Jon Stewart and Trey Parker/Matt Stone. Honest, wise, funny, and right. Sam Sifton was right up there when he was writing food criticism for the 'New York Times.'"

"I always find myself gravitating toward stories of transformation, and one of those periods is teenage life. When teenagers are figuring out who they are and have one foot in childhood and the other in adulthood - I think that's a really mythic moment to tell stories about."

"Feature filmmaking is a very powerful medium. It has a hold on me now."

"No matter how much you've done before, you wonder if there will be a light at the end of this particular tunnel. It's the nature of the beast, and it's a part of what compels us. Every movie is a new lesson you learn making your way through it."

"Whatever storytelling muscles you've developed as a documentary filmmaker will be extremely helpful as a narrative filmmaker."

"I discovered the theater when I was in the first grade."

"I grew up on Long Island, and from as early as I can remember, as far back as first grade, I had two real passions - one of them was putting on plays, and the other was journalism. I was directing plays and editing school papers from first grade on, all the way through college."

"With 'If I Stay,' I want you to feel that the whole story is being told from a larger, spiritual point of view. So the beginning is very theatrical."

"I'm very curious to know what it's like, death - I always say to my wife, 'I wonder if we'll have the 'New York Times' when we're dead.'"

"For eight months, from January to August of 2007, I filmed with Anna Wintour and her team at 'Vogue' as they created the September 2007 issue of the magazine."

"I work in the film business, where schmoozing is an art form, lunch hour lasts from 12:30 until 3, and every meeting takes an hour whether there's an hour's worth of business or not."

"There is a fundamental notion at the core of American identity that, in this country, any little boy or girl can grow up to be president."

"Reality television has borrowed so much from the world of politics, whether it's alliances or voting or the kind of strategizing that's done. Anything like that came from politics well before it came from reality television."

"The only thing documentary filmmakers have to work with, at least the way I make films, is trust. That's been true of everyone from James Carville and George Stephanopoulos to the kids in 'American High' to the soldiers in 'Military Diaries' to Anna Wintour to Dick Cheney."

"As a filmmaker, my approach is to come in not with preconceived notions, but with curiosity, and in that way, whether my subjects are James Carville or Anna Wintour or Dick Cheney, I am always surprised."