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Quotes by Director

"I made over forty Westerns. I used to lie awake nights trying to think up new ways of getting on and off a horse."
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William Wyler
"I made over forty Westerns. I used to lie awake nights trying to think up new ways of getting on and off a horse."
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35
"You can learn as much about the history from reading about the present as you can vice versa, that is learning about the present through history, which is what I do for a living."
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Ken Burns
"You can learn as much about the history from reading about the present as you can vice versa, that is learning about the present through history, which is what I do for a living."
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"Such manifestations I account as representing the creative leadership of the new forces of thought and appreciation which attend changes in technological pattern and therefore of the pattern of human relationships in society."
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John Grierson
"Such manifestations I account as representing the creative leadership of the new forces of thought and appreciation which attend changes in technological pattern and therefore of the pattern of human relationships in society."
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"The interesting thing about movies, it's not always - y'know, you have to have structure etc and all those things, but an audience responds, in many ways, we walk away and certain things stay in our heads that are memorable."
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Barry Levinson
"The interesting thing about movies, it's not always - y'know, you have to have structure etc and all those things, but an audience responds, in many ways, we walk away and certain things stay in our heads that are memorable."
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"I like throwing snowballs at small children."
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Sam Mendes
"I like throwing snowballs at small children."
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"We're all complex human beings, and if some of that complexity shows through, I think it's advantageous for the movie."
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Jan de Bont
"We're all complex human beings, and if some of that complexity shows through, I think it's advantageous for the movie."
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"Conventionally, one looks at history as something of the past. But after Einstein, who knows what is in the past and what is in the present?"
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Roland Joffe
"Conventionally, one looks at history as something of the past. But after Einstein, who knows what is in the past and what is in the present?"
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"I make movies just as painters paint: I work where I can."
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Jean-Jacques Annaud
"I make movies just as painters paint: I work where I can."
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"No one is out to get you. It's just that... people are monkeys."
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Stan Brakhage
"No one is out to get you. It's just that... people are monkeys."
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"What you do, is you gradually become more and more experienced, and more and more realistic about dramatic tolerance, i.e. about how long the play should be."
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Ridley Scott
"What you do, is you gradually become more and more experienced, and more and more realistic about dramatic tolerance, i.e. about how long the play should be."
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"I've met Nicole Kidman, Elton John, loads of people."
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Allan Carr
"I've met Nicole Kidman, Elton John, loads of people."
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"I wanted to make these people real, not like they were in a painting. Like these are people who don't know they're in a period movie. Those concerns are incredibly immediate."
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Neil LaBute
"I wanted to make these people real, not like they were in a painting. Like these are people who don't know they're in a period movie. Those concerns are incredibly immediate."
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"If you can talk brilliantly about a problem, it can create the consoling illusion that it has been mastered."
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Stanley Kubrick
"If you can talk brilliantly about a problem, it can create the consoling illusion that it has been mastered."
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"Good history is a question of survival. Without any past, we will deprive ourselves of the defining impression of our being."
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Ken Burns
"Good history is a question of survival. Without any past, we will deprive ourselves of the defining impression of our being."
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"An actors' tribute to me is in his work."
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Lee Strasberg
"An actors' tribute to me is in his work."
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"For the most part, studio movies have huge budgets. They don't do anything under 30 to 40 million. When you have that much money at stake, you have so many people breathing down your neck."
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Penelope Spheeris
"For the most part, studio movies have huge budgets. They don't do anything under 30 to 40 million. When you have that much money at stake, you have so many people breathing down your neck."
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"When I grow up, I still want to be a director."
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Steven Spielberg
"When I grow up, I still want to be a director."
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35
"I try to address my audiences intelligently. The man in the street counts, but sometimes he forgets that he counts."
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Roland Joffe
"I try to address my audiences intelligently. The man in the street counts, but sometimes he forgets that he counts."
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"Hands are the tool of the painter, the artist."
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Agnes Varda
"Hands are the tool of the painter, the artist."
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"We don't live in the world of reality, we live in the world of how we perceive reality."
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Bryan Singer
"We don't live in the world of reality, we live in the world of how we perceive reality."
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"The danger is not so much in the economic structure of a society but in its intellectual structure."
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Philip Kaufman
"The danger is not so much in the economic structure of a society but in its intellectual structure."
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"And Twin Peaks, the Film is the craziest film in the history of cinema. I have no idea what happened, I have no idea what I saw, all I know is that I left the theater floating six feet above the ground."
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Jacques Rivette
"And Twin Peaks, the Film is the craziest film in the history of cinema. I have no idea what happened, I have no idea what I saw, all I know is that I left the theater floating six feet above the ground."
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"It's so easy to manipulate an audience, but it's nearly always clear that you are being manipulated. I think even people that are not critically attuned are aware of cynical manipulation in film."
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John Boorman
"It's so easy to manipulate an audience, but it's nearly always clear that you are being manipulated. I think even people that are not critically attuned are aware of cynical manipulation in film."
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"They do think it is a big summer movie and that's why they want to give it a great chance, but they don't want to go up against Spider-Man 2 or some of the other big movies, the $100 million films that are coming up."
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David R. Ellis
"They do think it is a big summer movie and that's why they want to give it a great chance, but they don't want to go up against Spider-Man 2 or some of the other big movies, the $100 million films that are coming up."
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"If anybody doubts my loyalty to my country, I'll punch him in the nose, and I don't care how old he is."
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William Wyler
"If anybody doubts my loyalty to my country, I'll punch him in the nose, and I don't care how old he is."
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"I look at the story, I look at the idea and just try to think of it in terms of that whole body of myth and see where the characters fit in and what they ought to be doing-all those archetypes are there to play with."
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John Boorman
"I look at the story, I look at the idea and just try to think of it in terms of that whole body of myth and see where the characters fit in and what they ought to be doing-all those archetypes are there to play with."
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"I wanted to make connections between Whale's past and present."
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Bill Condon
"I wanted to make connections between Whale's past and present."
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"Many of the comedies I had made in Sweden were slightly based on semi-autobiographical experiences, so adapting novels was a very different experience."
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Lasse Hallstrom
"Many of the comedies I had made in Sweden were slightly based on semi-autobiographical experiences, so adapting novels was a very different experience."
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"I might have a guitar or a piano on set to play something for the actors."
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Mike Figgis
"I might have a guitar or a piano on set to play something for the actors."
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"Personally I am very much against the death penalty for several reasons."
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Alan Parker
"Personally I am very much against the death penalty for several reasons."
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"Some of us have great original ideas and some of us depend on adaptations."
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Frank Darabont
"Some of us have great original ideas and some of us depend on adaptations."
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"That attitude toward women as objects may have worked for the late Sixties, but it doesn't do so now."
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John Schlesinger
"That attitude toward women as objects may have worked for the late Sixties, but it doesn't do so now."
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"I love involving actors at all levels - and they have to know that I want to hear their contributions, with dialogue, with story suggestions, with script changes, whatever."
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Lasse Hallstrom
"I love involving actors at all levels - and they have to know that I want to hear their contributions, with dialogue, with story suggestions, with script changes, whatever."
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"Every single person in jail for a violent crime had a nightmare childhood."
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Rob Reiner
"Every single person in jail for a violent crime had a nightmare childhood."
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"I think people remember pictures not dialogue. That's why I like pictures."
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David Lean
"I think people remember pictures not dialogue. That's why I like pictures."
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"There was a widespread indignation in the American media. They were saying, 'How can you make a movie during an election that's about politics? What are you doing? Are you trying to influence people's lives?' To which my response was, 'Well, I hope so.'"
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John Sayles
"There was a widespread indignation in the American media. They were saying, 'How can you make a movie during an election that's about politics? What are you doing? Are you trying to influence people's lives?' To which my response was, 'Well, I hope so.'"
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"One of the things I love about cinema is the range."
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Mike Figgis
"One of the things I love about cinema is the range."
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"You can have a lot of unhappiness by not having money, but the reverse is no guarantee of happiness."
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Philip Kaufman
"You can have a lot of unhappiness by not having money, but the reverse is no guarantee of happiness."
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"There is a segment of the American population that has been excluded from the national myth, and that should be redressed."
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Edward Zwick
"There is a segment of the American population that has been excluded from the national myth, and that should be redressed."
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"I play piano and trumpet. I studied classical guitar."
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Mike Figgis
"I play piano and trumpet. I studied classical guitar."
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"If it turns out that there is a God...the worst that you can say about him is that basically he's an underachiever."
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Woody Allen
"If it turns out that there is a God...the worst that you can say about him is that basically he's an underachiever."
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"I value peace when it is not bought at the price of fundamental decencies."
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Elia Kazan
"I value peace when it is not bought at the price of fundamental decencies."
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"When it comes to two of the big social earthquakes in the last fifty years - which are the gay movement and the women's movement - I think there is a direct line from Kinsey to those."
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Bill Condon
"When it comes to two of the big social earthquakes in the last fifty years - which are the gay movement and the women's movement - I think there is a direct line from Kinsey to those."
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"For behaviorist films, that's been much more useful - the change of technology - but for my kind of films, doing them on film is much better, because it's more beautiful."
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Michael Apted
"For behaviorist films, that's been much more useful - the change of technology - but for my kind of films, doing them on film is much better, because it's more beautiful."
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"No, originally I thought that writing articles would keep me from having to see a psychiatrist, but I became even more depressed as a result."
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Theo Van Gogh
"No, originally I thought that writing articles would keep me from having to see a psychiatrist, but I became even more depressed as a result."
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"The only one that got through was Jimmy Walker, because he plays the gas station attendant. I mean, there's nothing wrong with it, it's just that we were kind of purists at the time, and we didn't want any comedians."
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David Zucker
"The only one that got through was Jimmy Walker, because he plays the gas station attendant. I mean, there's nothing wrong with it, it's just that we were kind of purists at the time, and we didn't want any comedians."
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"And later I thought, I can't think how anyone can become a director without learning the craft of cinematography."
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Nicolas Roeg
"And later I thought, I can't think how anyone can become a director without learning the craft of cinematography."
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"My father wanted me to be a pharmacist like himself. He had been a doctor, but he no longer believed in medicine; so he became a pharmacist, but he believed in that hardly more."
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Claude Chabrol
"My father wanted me to be a pharmacist like himself. He had been a doctor, but he no longer believed in medicine; so he became a pharmacist, but he believed in that hardly more."
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"I've had 79 to 80 years of show business. I started when I was 5 with a man called Tom Mix. I didn't have time to go to school because I was in silent movies, I was in radio, I was in burlesque, I worked with the circus. I'm all show business!"
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George Sidney
"I've had 79 to 80 years of show business. I started when I was 5 with a man called Tom Mix. I didn't have time to go to school because I was in silent movies, I was in radio, I was in burlesque, I worked with the circus. I'm all show business!"
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"A woman confronting men is a proper subject, it is inexhaustible."
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Claude Chabrol
"A woman confronting men is a proper subject, it is inexhaustible."
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