Direct Quotes - Page 4

I went without health insurance until 'Roger & Me,' basically - from about age 20 till about age 35. With 'Roger & Me,' I joined the Directors Guild and the Writers Guild, and since then I've had excellent health care managed by the union.

I don't watch the movies I make, so I haven't seen 'Footloose' since it came out. You see this young, hungry actor, it's pretty fun. I was the only one they screen tested. It was an attempt by the director and producer to talk the head of the studio into hiring me because they didn't want me.

I like, as a director and a spectator, simple, direct, frank films. Nothing disgusts me more than snobbism, mannerism, technical gratuity... and, most of all, intellectualism.

Sam Wood, the director, made most of his money as a real estate agent; there was nothing of the temperamental artist about him.

All film directors, whether famous or obscure, regard themselves as misunderstood or underrated. Because of that, they all lie. They're obliged to overstate their own importance.

Screenwriting is the most prized of all the cinematic arts. Actually, it isn't, but it should be.

America's corporate and political elites now form a regime of their own and they're privatizing democracy. All the benefits - the tax cuts, policies and rewards flow in one direction: up.

Yet what you need is not marches, demonstrations, rallies or wide associations, all of them are important. What you need is direct action. The sooner people understand that, the sooner we'll begin to change things.

My father was a film-maker. He always said he wanted to go like Humphrey Jennings, the legendary director who stepped backwards over a cliff while framing a better shot.

Where am I? Who am I? How did I come to be here? What is this thing called the world? How did I come into the world? Why was I not consulted? And If I am compelled to take part in it, where is the director? I want to see him.

For any director with a little lucidity, masterpieces are films that come to you by accident.

This is not a tough job. You read a script. If you like the part and the money is O.K., you do it. Then you remember your lines. You show up on time. You do what the director tells you to do. When you finish, you rest and then go on to the next part. That's it.

Any step away from the cross is a step in the wrong direction.

The fear of The Lord is a brake that stops you when you're in the wrong direction.

To me the director’s job is to leave it in better shape than you found it, literally.

I tell a story, and therefore I exist.

There are no good and bad movies, only good and bad directors

A film is never really good unless the camera is an eye in the head of a poet.

As a director, I also get to sit and watch actors and learn from them in a way that I don't get to do when I'm just acting.

I did all my directing when I wrote the screenplay. It was probably harder for a regular director. He probably had to read the script the night before shooting started.

When you see the films of certain young directors, you get the impression that film history begins for them around 1980.

I don't think you can define love.

My knowledge of myself is direct, synthetic, from within outwards; my knowledge of other persons is indirect, analytical, from outside inwards. My knowledge of myself starts at the core; that of others at the crust.

The Actor should make you forget the existence of author and director, and even forget the actor.

You can't go to sleep without a cup of tea and maybe thats the reason that you talk in your sleep.