Words matter. These are the best Haskell Wexler Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
One person has a responsibility not just for himself but for inter-relationships with the existences of others and the world.
People say they make movies to show what ‘really happens.’ But they only show what they choose to show.
I don’t think there is a movie that I’ve been on that I wasn’t sure I could direct it better. But certainly also, as a director of photography, I have to serve the movie in whatever way I can as a filmmaker.
Documentary people have to know that, particularly nowadays, they have to be on a mission. And part of the mission is to – is to be like good journalists: search for the truth, have an open mind, listen to as much as you can of different sides of things.
Making a film – particularly what I think is a good film – is the result of a team of people, and the end result has many, many hands on it.
I think that we should remember that social change can happen when people join together with some strength.
When they speak about ‘We the people…,’ we the people have to have a voice. It can’t just be the establishment voice.
Professional cinema image-taking should integrate, serve, interest, and enhance the story. I judge cinematography not just for a story well told but for what the story is.
I don’t believe in publicity before a film is completed. It costs you money and wastes your energy, and you’re inflating your balloon before you have a balloon.
Movies are a voyeuristic experience. You have to make the audience feel like they are peeking through a keyhole. I think of myself as the audience. Then I use light, framing, and motion to create a focal point.
See, New York is over the hill. It’s swallowed up in its own garbage. And the people – I can’t stand the people.
I was a sailor. I was torpedoed, spent two weeks in a lifeboat. I was on the Murmansk run; I worked a 20 mm. machine gun, helped bring down a Stuka, all that kind of stuff. I’ve got letters from Franklin Roosevelt for things I did then. But those kind of credentials didn’t work for you in the Cold War.
The best thing that winning those Academy Awards things are – the best thing of it is that when I say some of my ideas, somebody’s going to listen to it, and they’ll preface what I say, ‘Academy Award winner da-da-da-da-da.’
I am a Chicagoan. I feel like I’ve simply been on vacation for 10 years in Los Angeles. But Chicago is a real place, and L.A. is a motel.