Jonathan Demme
Jonathan Demme

Nothing beats a live performance. Nothing.

Jonathan Demme
Jonathan Demme

There is so much going on in our country and in the world today... We're getting the headlines for a second, shaped by corporate delivery most of the time, but what's really the story there? Well, I'm turned on by that kind of stuff.

Jonathan Demme
Jonathan Demme

Every film deserves its own unique look.

Jonathan Demme
Jonathan Demme

I get creeped out by Francis Bacon's paintings, and I can't say exactly why. They're all really disturbing, and there is an almost nimbus-like quality behind some of his frightening characters and stuff.

Jonathan Demme
Jonathan Demme

I'm all for streaming, and I do think it's thrilling that a gazillion people can see our film the day it drops. On the other hand, I'm a fierce believer of the theatergoing experience. My hope would be that films can be enjoyed in both ways, that there's room for both.

Jonathan Demme
Jonathan Demme

Documentaries - my God, there is so much going on in our country and in the world today that every time you open the newspaper or turn on the radio or watch the news on TV there is another documentary subject. We're getting the headlines for a second, shaped by corporate delivery most of the time, but what's really the story there?

Jonathan Demme
Jonathan Demme

As much as I love acoustic Neil Young - and I do deeply - I may be more passionate about the electric. Luckily it's not a contest, and we never have to make that choice. But Neil Young on an electric guitar - I feel like I've never seen or heard anything like it.

Jonathan Demme
Jonathan Demme

The excitement of wading into 'reality' and just finding out what happens - and then the challenge of selecting those things that happened and shaping them in the editing into a narrative that will have appeal and be engaging - is a great, great thrill.

Jonathan Demme
Jonathan Demme

I didn't go to film school so my learning was done out in public and showed up on the screen.

Jonathan Demme
Jonathan Demme

By the time I got to 'Silence of the Lambs,' I was madly in love with close-ups because I'm madly in love with actors, and a basic premise of 'Silence of the Lambs' is the story about two people fighting their way into each other's heads.

Jonathan Demme
Jonathan Demme

I like finding a great shot and then just staying with it for a long time, not trying to pump things up with some kind of artificial energy by cutting.

Jonathan Demme
Jonathan Demme

I felt from time to time that shooting live music is the most purely cinematic thing you can do. Ideally, the cinema is becoming one with the music. There is little artifice involved. There's no acting. I love it.

Jonathan Demme
Jonathan Demme

In early 1983, Gary Goetzman and I went to see my favorite band, the Talking Heads, at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. The show was like seeing a movie just waiting to be filmed.

Jonathan Demme
Jonathan Demme

I don't think it's sacrilegious to remake any movie, including a good or even great movie.

Jonathan Demme
Jonathan Demme

I also feel that the only thing more gratifying than working with someone who you've worked well with is working with someone new and coming up with something great.

Jonathan Demme
Jonathan Demme

I don't think of Storefront Hitchcock or Stop Making Sense as documentaries, I think of them more as performance films.

Jonathan Demme
Jonathan Demme

I had very strong feelings, so the chance to make a film that deals in an imaginative way with stuff you care tremendously about is a real high. It's a really amazing thing to be able to do.

Jonathan Demme
Jonathan Demme

I only work with actors who take full responsibility for their characters.

Jonathan Demme
Jonathan Demme

I was a sort of rock journalist - whatever that is - in London in the late '60s.

Jonathan Demme
Jonathan Demme

When Silence of the Lambs did well commercially it was more than anything. My partner Ed Saxon and I were just so relieved that finally we had made a movie that had made some money!