Quotes from Anna Boden

The truth is we were never considered for 'Guardians of the Galaxy.' It was misprinted. I think there was another directing team that had been considered.

Especially as an independent director, when you're writing something on spec and you're trying to get it sold, you create this entire world in your head and you feel like you know every minutiae of how everything should be.

I've talked to a lot of directors who direct solo like most directors. And they're always like, 'Oh, man I wish I had somebody I could direct with because it's a lot of work.'

No, we are not tyrants on set, and we are kind of come at it very much as collaborators and not just with each other but everybody and particularly the actors.

I speak Spanish, not perfectly; it's definitely my second language.

People, whether they be male or female, are equally a mystery to me.

I took a class my freshman year in high school called Intro To Film, and I was introduced to Robert Altman's films, and I wrote my first paper on a filmmaker and it was Altman's 'M*A*S*H,' and Nashville and I think 'Short Cuts' or 'The Player,' I don't remember.

I feel like directorial teams aren't quite as uncommon in documentary.

With 'Half Nelson' we had a little bit more leeway to let the political be more present, because he was a social-studies teacher and this was what he was teaching the kids, so we'd have those direct-to-camera addresses.

It would be great to continue shooting on film. Amongst other things, the mystery of not knowing exactly how it's going to look until we see it later and having your DP and being able to trust in him that he's the holder of how this is going to look is a beautiful mystery of filmmaking I'm loathe to look up.

We weren't big 'Notebook' fans or anything.

You get told a lot in school to tell what you know, write what you know. But what excites me about filmmaking, about being a storyteller, is being able to learn about other people, putting myself in somebody else's shoes, whether that be someone from the Dominican Republic or someone from Cuba or inner-city Brooklyn.

I mean, television has really changed a lot, and changed the way movie people think about working in the storytelling business.

I think the most valuable thing that we've done at festivals is meet other filmmakers.

Whenever we've approached a story, it's always started with the character, and the idea of some character struggling with some part of himself. That's what gets us in.

There are studios out there and we have met them who take the movie away from the filmmaker and don't want them to have input. But that's not with Marvel.

We don't think there are simple answers about that why someone is the way they are.

Emotionally, I don't feel like a trailblazer at all.