Trivia

Did uncredited rewrites for Apolo 13 (1995) and Mimic (1997).

His films are often more based on character than plot.

Speaks Spanish fluently.

Drafted in 1968, but rejected by the United States Army because of missing vertebra.

In his hometown of Schenectady, New York, there is the Sayles School of Fine Arts Black Box Theatre at the high school.

Directed one Oscar nominated performance: Mary McDonnell in Passion Fish (1992).

Was classmates at Williams College with actor David Strathairn, whom Sayles regularly casts in his films.

In the 2008 Empire Magazine movie poll, Sayles listed his ten favorite films as: Yojimbo (1961), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), Two Women (1960), The Organizer (1963), The Spirit of the Beehive (1973), Seven Samurai (1954), Sawdust and Tinsel (1953), Raging Bull (1980), The Wages of Fear (1953), Port of Shadows (1938).

While staying in Greenville, Alabama, during the Honeydripper (2007) shoot, Maggie Renzi and Sayles called in a contribution during the fund drive for the National Public Radio affiliate WUAL-FM in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

Sayles is a great admirer of Akira Kurosawa and borrowed the basic plot of "Battle beyond the Stars" from "The Seven Samurai.".

In an AFI poll, he chose Akira Kurosawa's "Redbeard" as his favorite film.

He has appeared in three films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Return of the Secaucus Seven (1979), Matewan (1987) and Malcolm X (1992). He has also directed two films that are in the registry: Return of the Secaucus Seven and Matewan.

Has English and Irish ancestry.

In Greenville, Alabama, with partner Maggie Renzi, filming Honeydripper (starring Danny Glover) (septiembre de 2006)

In the Philippines filming Amigo. (junio de 2010)