Top 80 Noah Baumbach Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “I made two movies very young, and then I had trouble getting a movie made, and so – which was both, I think, a plus and a minus. It was a minus because it made me unhappy.”

— Noah Baumbach

52. “I think I was going through a lot of change at 27, but I didn’t know it was happening until it was over.”

— Noah Baumbach

53. “I think I’ve always been drawn to the notion of talk as cinematic.”

— Noah Baumbach

54. “I like shooting in New York because I have such a connection to the city. I have so many memories there.”

— Noah Baumbach

55. “When I make a movie, I have both a specific and vague, amorphous dream idea of what the movie is going to be. Of course, I don’t actually know what it’s going to be, but I’m still striving to get to some place with it.”

— Noah Baumbach

56. “Wes Anderson grew up in Houston, and he and I talk about Manhattan in similar ways, as a kind of fantasy world.”

— Noah Baumbach

57. “I don’t like when you necessarily know that this is the end of the movie. I like when a movie ends abruptly. You go through this, and some of the scenes are uncomfortable, and some are funny – and then suddenly it’s over.”

— Noah Baumbach

58. “I read all the time. Sometimes I get asked if I’ve thought about writing a novel.”

— Noah Baumbach

59. “I always wanted to write movies that I’d direct. I didn’t come at it from a writing standpoint more than a directing standpoint, except that growing up, I didn’t have the opportunity to shoot as much as I did to write.”

— Noah Baumbach

60. “I’m interested in music as an extension of character.”

— Noah Baumbach

61. “I find a lot of writing happens when you’re not actually at the computer. So I carry a notebook.”

— Noah Baumbach

62. “Anyone who’s putting money into your movie would always rather you cast well-known people.”

— Noah Baumbach

63. “There are the people who overthink making mix CDs and playlists, and how that works generationally is all really interesting to me.”

— Noah Baumbach

64. “I suppose some studio executive would say it’s death for a comedy if people aren’t all laughing in the same places, but I find with my movies that people laugh in very different places. I can’t control it.”

— Noah Baumbach

65. “Adaptations are fun for me because they connect to the idea of filmmaking I had when I was a kid. I would see a movie and think: ‘I’m gonna make that movie.’”

— Noah Baumbach

66. “I do like having books on my shelves. I do value that life.”

— Noah Baumbach

67. “Manhattan is so tailored. It’s driven by appealing to the very wealthy and tourists.”

— Noah Baumbach

68. “Other people have worked with big studios and maintained control over their movies. I see no reason why it wouldn’t work for me.”

— Noah Baumbach

69. “How you start the movie is critical. And how often you feel that there’s no reason for how it’s starting.”

— Noah Baumbach

70. “Will Ferrell’s made a lot of brilliant movies.”

— Noah Baumbach

71. “I’ve always liked working with friends or, you know, people I have outside relationships with.”

— Noah Baumbach

72. “I love black-and-white movies that are about contemporary subjects.”

— Noah Baumbach

73. “I don’t agree with the idea that my characters are unlikeable.”

— Noah Baumbach

74. “Friends of friends had bands in college or in their early 20s and had a moment where they had some kind of interest from a record label or manager. It’s always interesting how people handle those decisions and those moments.”

— Noah Baumbach

75. “I’m a huge proponent of therapy and analysis, but it’s something that, in a nonprofessional way, can be abused.”

— Noah Baumbach

76. “I’ve had great experiences or joyful experiences making a movie that people found very disturbing.”

— Noah Baumbach

77. “When I start a movie, there will be certain films that I watch again just because the vibe seems right.”

— Noah Baumbach

78. “I try to procrastinate, if I can, productively, like I’ll work on something else as procrastination. Or I take a walk. Because often I find, if you get out, more things come to you.”

— Noah Baumbach

79. “I like to try to shoot in the city in a way that allows the city to go about its business while we’re shooting, and that’s always a challenge because unfortunately people on the street don’t know not to look in the camera or interact with the actors.”

— Noah Baumbach

80. “I get a lot of responses to my movies. Some people say, ‘Oh, I thought it was really funny – I hope that’s okay!’ And my answer always is ‘Yes. It’s totally okay.’”

— Noah Baumbach

81. “A lot of black-and-white films generally have a color version that will be used for TV.”

— Noah Baumbach

82. “I like having associations with locations beyond their meaning for the specific movie.”

— Noah Baumbach

83. “Peter Bogdanovich is a good friend.”

— Noah Baumbach

84. “I’ve had times in my life when I really haven’t been able to figure myself out.”

— Noah Baumbach

85. “I feel a real connection to Brooklyn, certainly, because I spent 20 years of my life there, but I don’t think of myself as a Brooklyn artist any more than I think of myself as a male artist.”

— Noah Baumbach