As a kid I decided that a Canadian accent doesn't sound tough. I thought guys should sound like Marlon Brando. So now I have a phony accent that I can't shake, so it's not phony anymore.
Ryan Gosling
I sometimes forget to have breakfast in the morning, but when I actually buy a box of cereal, I will probably eat it not only for breakfast but also as a snack later on.
Women are better than men.
I've learned it's important not to limit yourself. You can do whatever you really love to do, no matter what it is.
All my characters are me. I'm not a good enough actor to become a character. I hear about actors who become the role and I think 'I wonder what that feels like.' Because for me, they're all me.
Sometimes I think that the one thing I love most about being an adult is the right to buy candy whenever and wherever I want.
Falling in love is a narcissistic endeavor. You play the role of lover, and you find someone to act it out on.
I feel like I think like a woman because I grew up with my mother and my sister, so I've just been programmed to think like a girl.
Muscles. We're talking about muscles? They're like pets, basically, and they're not worth it. They're just not worth it. You have to feed them all the time and take care of them, and if you don't, they just go away. They run away.
The theme for me is love and the lack of it. We all want that and we don't know how to get it, and everything we do is some kind of attempt to capture it for ourselves.
Freedom is such a gift.
I've been thinking about a bank robbery my whole life.
I danced a little as a kid here in Canada: in Ottawa at the Elite Dance Studio and at the Top Hat Dance School in Cornwall where I grew up. So I had some experience of having to learn routines.
I love being Canadian. I think growing up in Canada gives you a world perspective that I certainly enjoy.
I'm going to make a movie about 'Hey Girl.'
I think about death a lot, like I think we all do. I don't think of suicide as an option, but as fun. It's an interesting idea that you can control how you go. It's this thing that's looming, and you can control it.
I don't believe my house was haunted. I think I had an overactive imagination, and I was so convinced that those around me became convinced, too.
I know that I'm with the person I'm supposed to be with.
I don't really have that much angst to get rid of.
Some of the styles of dance in 'La La Land' I wish I had spent time on when I was a kid.
I'm attracted to films that have strong female characters because there are strong female characters in my life. That's my own reality, so it's a doorway into a world for me.
That's the power of film. If it's good, it can somehow make you feel connected to even the farthest thing from your own experience.
I feel it's important to show that one thing that you do doesn't define you as a human being. It doesn't mean there aren't ramifications or you shouldn't pay for that but its not who you are.
If the character is true, the movie will fall into place. Or at least that's what you hope.
When I made 'The Notebook,' the director, Nick Cassavetes, who is John's son, used to show me his father's movies.
I grew up Mormon. I wasn't really Mormon, my parents were.
It's not easy to leave your hometown and your family and your support system and come out to Los Angeles to - to pursue a dream where the odds are not in your favor.
Do you remember when Fabio got hit in the face with a pigeon on the roller coaster, and it broke his nose? Sometimes I feel like I'm the pigeon, and the Internet is Fabio's face. Actually, I don't know if I'm the pigeon, or I'm Fabio's face. Depends on the day, I guess.
A car is only trouble at a certain point.
If I eat a huge meal and I can get the girl to rub my belly, I think that's about as romantic as I can think of.
I think I was always bound to become two selves, if I wasn't already.
I did what I had to do to get where I wanted to go. I had unearned confidence.
My uncle was an Elvis impersonator - his name was Perry, and he went by 'Elvis Perry' - and my work as a wedding singer landed me a spot in his act.
It was a strange experience, making a love story and not getting along with your co-star in any way.
If you do one good thing, that doesn't define you either. Being around the kids in the juvenile center, they were engaging, they made us laugh but they were there for doing something terrible.
When I was a kid, I was kind of obsessed with that movie 'Dick Tracy.' Burger King had all this 'Dick Tracy' stuff, and I collected all of it, and I had the posters, and I watched it on a loop.
When my mother and I walked to the grocery store, men would circle the block in cars. It was very, very scary, especially as a young boy. Very predatory - a hunt.
The '70s just seemed dirty, honestly, and not in an interesting way. It's not the '80s. In fact, it's 10 less. I grew up in the '80s, so that's more of an interesting time to me.
I've always liked women more. I was brought up by my mother and older sister. I found my way into dance class.
I don't know enough about manliness to define it.
I've lost perspective on what I'm doing. I think it's good for me to take a break and reassess why I'm doing it and how I'm doing it. And I think this is probably a good way to learn about that. I need a break from myself as much as I imagine the audience does.
I love 'An American in Paris.' That's the one for me. Some of the visual ideas in that film are just haunting and very free.
You know us crazy kids. We'll do anything crazy to our hair.
It's interesting the kind of freedom the musical form gives you. The rules are out the window. You can get impressionistic without seeming pretentious. Because it's perceived as an inherently accessible form, it gives filmmakers some leeway.
This is going to sound ridiculous, but I remember watching 'Boyz n the Hood,' and there is a scene where Cuba Gooding, Jr. gets pressed against a car by a police officer, and he starts crying because it's so humiliating. I remember thinking in that moment that I could totally identify with him, and I'm a little white kid from Canada.
I loved growing up in Canada. It's a great place to grow up because - well, at least where I grew up - it's very multicultural. There's also good health care and a good education system.
I'm glad I have an outlet. I don't think I would put my aggression elsewhere, but working on the projects I have worked on, you tend to benefit personally from trying to wrap your head around the way other people look at the world.
When you meet your kids, you realize that they deserve great parents. And then you have your marching orders, and you have to try and become the person that they deserve.
I turned 30, and everyone told me I would feel different, and I didn't.
People don't step outside themselves and make the film they want to make, because they're afraid of the reaction. But once you get that reaction and have lived through it, there's nothing they can do to get you down.
