I always found the film world unpleasant. It’s all about the schedule, and never really flew for me.
I had been a kid that moved so much, I didn’t have a lot of friends. Theater really represented camaraderie.
Ten Days That Shook The World, by Eisenstein, I went to see it, and I was so impressed with this film, so impressed with what cinema could do.
I was never sloppy with other people’s money. Only my own. Because I figure, well, you can be.
Everything I do is personal. I have never made a movie that didn’t have very strong personal resonance.
I think a sequel is a waste of money and time. I think movies should illuminate new stories.
Lots of people have criticized my movies, but nobody has ever identified the real problem: I’m a sloppy filmmaker.
That’s part of the requirement for me to be an artist is that you’re trying to share your personal existence with others and trying to illuminate modern life, trying to understand life.
It takes no imagination to live within your means.
I became quite successful very young, and it was mainly because I was so enthusiastic and I just worked so hard at it.
I gladly, I voluntarily gave up the kind of commercial film career I had going as soon as I had enough money to finance my own films.
My film is not a movie; it’s not about Vietnam. It is Vietnam.
George Lucas doesn’t have the most physical stamina. He was so unhappy making Star Wars that he just vowed he’d never do it again.
‘Godfather’ was very classical – the way it was shot, the style – the whole driving force of it was more classical, almost Shakespearean.
Sound is your friend because sound is much cheaper than picture, but it has equal effect on the audience – in some ways, perhaps more effect because it does it in a very indirect way.
I landed a job with Roger Corman. The job was to write the English dialogue for a Russian science fiction picture. I didn’t speak any Russian. He didn’t care whether I could understand what they were saying; he wanted me to make up dialogue.
If I have to be remembered for something, I want it remembered that I really liked children and was a good camp counselor.
I wanted to be a film student again, as a man in my 60s. To go someplace alone and see what you can cook up, with non-existent budgets. I didn’t want to be surrounded by comforts and colleagues, which you have when when you’re a big time director. I wanted to write personal works.
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