I've always approached screenplays and so forth with, "How would it really happen?" Not "What's the movie version?" but "What's the real-life version…

- Alexander Payne

What science-fiction premises do is it gives you a "what-if" prism to look at the contemporary world with a wack on the side of the head.

- Alexander Payne

A pitfall of making a comedy with a studio-and it's also an American cultural thing-is that I get tired of being encouraged to go always for laughs.

- Alexander Payne

The biggest fear I have is to die with regrets, and of course that will come true.

- Alexander Payne

If you have your movies so that everyone understands everything, I think that's probably not a very good movie.

- Alexander Payne

I think a badly crafted, great idea for a new film with a ton of spelling mistakes is just 100 times better than a well-crafted stale script.

- Alexander Payne

There is an audience out there for literate films - slower, more observant, more human films, and they deserve to be made.

- Alexander Payne

I think cynicism lasts. Sentimentality ages, dates quickly.

- Alexander Payne

I like actors who, when you see them on screen, you sense a person, not just an actor.

- Alexander Payne