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Quotes by Director

"The term 'giant' is used too often to describe artists. But in the case of Akira Kurosawa, we have one of the rare instances where the term fits."


"I use colors to bring fine points of story and character."

"Whenever I arrive on a real location, I have to move around and work out what the best angles are going to be. When I was moving around with the lens, I discovered things that the naked eye would not have."


"If there's anything I hate more than being taken seriously, it's being taken too seriously."


"Fortunately, John Houseman is a marvelous writer and he sat in on so many story conferences. He worked with Welles, you know, and he's a marvelous man."

"My ideas are always better. We have an understanding in place."

"The so-called commercialism includes elements like story, plots, rhythms and large big scenes."

"Part of the issue of achievement is to be able to set realistic goals, but that's one of the hardest things to do because you don't always know exactly where you're going, and you shouldn't."

"So we have to be careful because if you don't protect your culture you won't have it for very long."


"I think we all have blocks between us and the best version of ourselves, whether it's shyness, insecurity, anxiety, whether it's a physical block, and the story of a person overcoming that block to their best self. It's truly inspiring because I think all of us are engaged in that every day."

"I went through a phase where I thought nostalgia was a bad thing."

"Intellectualism came very late to America. That's why Americans are so proud of it. I found very few real intellectuals in America. But there are so many pseudo-intellectuals."

"I had the X rating on my films. Now they do as much on The Simpsons as I got an X rating for Fritz the Cat."
Now,

"Hollywood is an extraordinary kind of temporary place."

"Rarest of the real poets are born poets. They are the oddballs, not the professors."

"Photography must be integrated with the story."

"I will not cut my film because, because, because, because of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz."

"After Lock, Stock, all these really nasty small town characters came knocking at my door trying to tell me stories, and somehow I ended up with this guy whose brother was feeding people to pigs, and that's what he did to get rid of people."

"Well, there's that girl on the Internet - although this isn't an example of someone who doesn't know they're on - but there's a girl on the Internet who posts one photograph every two minutes from her bedroom."


"You know, this whole thing about Ricky Martin, and how successful that young man is. He's 27, I was 29."

"It proved to be pretty impossible to get funds for a feature film in Finland. It's still small, but the film industry was miniscule at that point in the early '80s."

"I'd love to have another film to go on to. I'm in the mood to work. But I have to be patient, you know, to find that particular kind of project. Occasionally I'll write one myself if I can summon up the energy."

"I think ultimately if you have a very high expectation of your audience and you know exactly what it is you're trying to express through the medium of film, there will always be an audience for you."

"I think that the consciousness of passion makes you act very differently."

"The importance of the assistant director cannot be overemphasized."
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