Ang Lee Quotes

We need storytelling. Otherwise life just goes on and on, like the number Pi.

I see a movie as a way of learning about the world, about myself, and learning about my relationship with people and art.

Sometimes films ignore other points of view because it's simpler to tell the story that way, but the more genuine and sympathetic you are to different points of view and situations, the more real the story is.

The fear factor actually brings the genuineness.

You have to know the rules, otherwise you have no tools to communicate to the audience, but to keep it fresh you have to break some. I don't choose genres as the element, but the material itself is the element, then I'll decide what genre I need. That's just how I work.

Every movie I make. That’s my hideout, the place I don’t quite understand, but feel most at home.

I think great romance needs great obstacles and textures.

Sometimes, you have to get angry to get things done.

I'm aware of what's missing from my life.

Fighting for identity is something that is very much in my life.

I think people are universal.

Making movies is a way of understanding myself and the world.

When you talk about God, the first thing that comes along is not love, it's fear. You have to fear, and be in awe. You have to be scared. Any religion, it's like first thing.

I feel like all of my characters now take this congested situation, they clash, and from there you purge yourself.

I'm not a master of films. I'm rather a slave.

I did a women's movie, and I'm not a woman. I did a gay movie, and I'm not gay. I learned as I went along.

I think a movie is a media that is evoking feelings.

When there is a strong woman character in a story - that always grabs me

So it [3D] is something I'm still learning, it's fresh, so if the budget allows I'll do it again and just see how far it goes because it's the frontier, it's more interesting. It's still expensive, the projection system can be annoying sometimes, it's not really regulated or perfected yet, so it's still expensive. If I do a lower budget I'll just do 2D, but if the budget allows I think I'll try 3D.

At times I can't help going for visual comfort. Sometimes a picture fills up your head, and you try to move the actors around to make that visual statement.

These days I'm mostly familiar with two parts of L.A.: one is movie culture, and the other is Asian culture. The Westside is work, and the Eastside is Chinese - which means my friends.

There's a level of sophistication of filmmaking that's mind-boggling. Anything you need for your movie, there's an establishment that can make it happen really fast.

A movie is really provocation. It's not a message, it's not a statement.

For a filmmaker, it's a rare chance to do a personal film on a big canvas.

Over the years Woodstock got glorified and romanticised and became the event that symbolised Utopia. It's the last page of our collective memory of the age of innocence. Then things turned ugly and would never be the same again.