Screenwriter Paul Schrader Says He Wrote “Taxi Driver ”While 'Down on Everything' in His 20s
Screenwriter Paul Schrader Says He Wrote “Taxi Driver ”While 'Down on Everything' in His 20s
Meredith Wilshere, Desiree AnelloSun, June 14, 2026 at 9:29 PM UTC
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Robert De Niro in 'Taxi Driver'Credit: FilmPublicityArchive/United Archives via Getty -
Paul Schrader conceived Taxi Driver during a difficult time in his life, inspired by feelings of loneliness and anger
The metaphor of a taxi cab as a "yellow coffin" symbolizing isolation shaped the film's script and themes
The 1976 classic earned four Oscar nominations and starred Robert De Niro and Jodie Foster
Taxi Driver came to Paul Schrader as a metaphor.
At the Taxi Driver 50th Anniversary Screening and Panel at Tribeca Festival on June 5, Schrader was joined by Robert De Niro, director Martin Scorsese and Jodie Foster for a conversation moderated by W. Kamau Bell.
When asked about how the idea of the movie came to be, Schrader, 79, told the audience, "I think that I stumbled on a metaphor that was true."
"I was in a period in Los Angeles, down on everything, living in my car and ended up in the hospital with an ulcer, and the idea of a taxi cab came to my head, and I said, 'That's who I am,'" he recalled of his 20-something-year-old self.
Schrader felt like the idea of a taxi driver mimicked his own life at the time, as someone right in the middle of everything, yet who felt extremely alone.
"And there used to be this idea of a taxi driver as your dad's friend Joe, the garrulous, friendly guy. I said, 'He's not a garrulous, friendly guy.' I said, 'He's terrified. He's frightened. He's the dark old Dostoevsky. He's angry. He's lonely,'" he continued, seemingly referencing Fyodor Dostoevsky's novella Notes from Underground, in which the hyper-conscious unnamed narrator lives a life of total alienation stemming from deep resentment.
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Schrader said the driver he imagined felt "sealed up in a yellow coffin."As soon as Schrader made the comparison, he "knew how to write this."
Robert De Niro in 'Taxi Driver'Credit: Screen Archives/Getty
Originally, he said there was more "loneliness" in the voiceovers in the film.
"Marty showed me a fairly early version of the script. And I remember saying to you, 'Marty, I think even though I wrote it, I don't think we need that much voiceover because every time we see that big yellow checker again, wham, you get hit on the head with a metaphor. You know, that is loneliness, that cab, not his words.' "
Voiceovers serve as a defining element of the neo-noir film, pulled from the diaries of De Niro's Travis Bickle. The 1976 Martin Scorsese-directed classic starred De Niro, 82, as the disaffected taxi driver whose mental health is crumbling as he works the night shift.
The movie became one of the biggest critical and commercial hits of that year. At the Academy Awards, it was nominated in four categories: Best Picture, Best Original Score, Best Actor (De Niro) and Best Supporting Actress (Jodie Foster).
In addition to De Niro, the film starred Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Harvey Keitel, Peter Boyle, Leonard Harris and Albert Brooks.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
