Film Director Quotes

“On Hayao Miyazaki

I told Miyazaki I love the "gratuitous motion" in his films; instead of every movement being dictated by the story, sometimes people will just sit for a moment, or they will sigh, or look in a running stream, or do something extra, not to advance the story but only to give the sense of time and place and who they are.

"We have a word for that in Japanese," he said, "It's called ma. Emptiness. It's there intentionally."

Is that like the "pillow words" that separate phrases in Japanese poetry?

"I don't think it's like the "pillow word." He clapped his hands three or four times. "The time in between my clapping is ma. If you just have non-stop action with no breathing space at all, it's just busyness, but if you take a moment, then the tension building in the film can grow into a wider dimension. If you just have constant tension at 80 degrees all the time you just get numb.”
― Roger Ebert

“Here is to all the brilliant minds that love deeply, for they write the stories that make us dream of true love. Here is to all the visionaries that create a miracle when others give up hope. Here is to all the artists, musicians, actors, singers, songwriters, dancers, screenwriters, philosophers, inventors and poetic hearts that create a perspective of heaven we can experience in this lifetime. But most of all, here is to the wild souls that the world calls broken, insane, abnormal, weird or different because they are the ones that renew our faith, by what they overcome and create, in a world that needs a sign that God doesn’t forget the least of us.”
― Shannon L. Alder

“No, really. Just do it. You have some kind of weird reasons that are okay.”
― Paul Thomas Anderson

“It was thanks to Alfred Hitchcock that I understood that murder scenes should be shot like love scenes and love scenes like murder scenes.”
― Grace Kelly

“An actor is just a part of a movie, but director - he is the movie.”
― Amit Kalantri

“Make films that purify the soul with the flow of rational, vigorous and compassionate thinking.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Film Testament

“Use filmmaking for a greater purpose, than to just entertain some drowsy minds. Wake the whole world up with your movies. It has been sleeping for long. Its eternal sleep has become its darkest nemesis. Now is the time to wake it up.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Film Testament

“If you don't get it right, what's the point?”
― Michael Cimino

“A Film has the potential to kindle such a spark of inspiration in an individual that it can alter the course of human progress.”
― Abhijit Naskar

“Entertain, but also, give the viewer something to think about.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Film Testament

“Give people films, they will forget after a few weeks, but give people ideas, they will assimilate them into their consciousness.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Film Testament

“Filmmaking has the power to fortify the feeble, unify the divided, raise the abandoned and inspire the ignorant.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Film Testament

“Use filmmaking to eliminate racism – use to it terminate misogyny – use it to destroy homophobia and all other primitiveness.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Film Testament

“Take the clapper and become the alarm that the world so desperately needs.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Film Testament

“Whatever genre you deem suitable for your taste – romance, comedy, action, mystery, sci-fi or anything else, make sure it has the plain everyday human kindness.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Film Testament

“If you can film an idea in your mind, follow that film idea shot for shot, scene for scene and enjoy it, that idea is worth making for the world to see. It can change someone's life.”
― Craig Mapp

“Nature is a cinema.
God, the cinematographer.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson, Song of a Nature Lover

“You highbrows writing on movies are nuts! In order to write about movies you must first make them.”
― Orson Welles, Orson Welles: Interviews

“People love seeing violence and horrible things. The human being is bad and can't stand more than five minutes of happiness. Put him in a dark theater and ask him to look at two hours of happiness, and he'd walk out or fall asleep.”
― Paul Verhoeven, Showgirls: Portrait of a Film

“Writer is a Film Director of letters.”
― Rajesh Nanoo, The Cave of Wisdom: Finest of Esoteric & Semitic Philosophy

“Healthy entertainment does not evoke raw emotions in the mind of a viewer only to make them wreak havoc, rather it guides those emotions in a healthy direction.”
― Abhijit Naskar

“Healthy entertainment is a beautiful blend of stimuli that can connect with the viewer at a sentimental level, then sow the seeds of a certain idea or feed the mind with inspiration and courage. In short, healthy entertainment does not evoke raw emotions in the mind of a viewer only to make them wreak havoc, rather it guides those emotions in a healthy direction. This leads to not only an entertained viewer, but also an inspired soul. And that should be the purpose of film-making, and indeed the entire entertainment industry, rather than feeding the general population with garbage.”
― Abhijit Naskar

“The art of filmmaking is the most influential form of art that has ever existed throughout the history of human artistic endeavors.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Film Testament

“A movie is not a movie, it is a potential nuclear furnace of inspiration, courage and conscience.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Film Testament

“Filmmaking is not the work of the weak-minded. It may not be rocket science, but it requires ten times more strength of the mind than that.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Film Testament

“Make movies my friend – make nice, inspiring and bold movies that will penetrate the darkest corners of the human mind and illuminate the soul.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Film Testament

“If you can film an idea in your mind, follow that film idea shot for shot, scene for scene, that idea is worth making.”
― Craig Mapp

“With every movie that they do, they’ll come up with a few films they really like and we’ll talk about them. Way back when we did Barton Fink, Joel and Ethan would say, ’Think Kubrick!”
― Adam Nayman, The Coen Brothers: This Book Really Ties the Films Together