Top 90 Ridley Scott Quotes

From time to time, there are people in the film industry who appear on the horizon with a unique vision. South African director Neill Blomkamp is one of those rare people.

Perhaps because of my background as a graphic designer, I’m drawn to rich and beautiful colors.

Blade Runner appears regularly, two or three times a year in various shapes and forms of science fiction. It set the pace for what is essentially urban science fiction, urban future and it’s why I’ve never re-visited that area because I feel I’ve done it.

I would make a film with a political point of view if I agreed with it, and even, perhaps, if I didn’t.

If ‘formulaic’ is somebody who is unlikely to succeed starting down a process and succeeding – then isn’t that what most films are about? And art films are about people who aren’t likely to succeed and then don’t succeed.

The very first film I ever saw was a pirate movie called ‘The Black Swan’ with Tyrone Power. And I thought that was great stuff. Of course, in those days, Technicolor was really Technicolor; there was no such thing as desaturation. Everybody looked super suntanned.

There’s a big film industry in Egypt, and quite a big one in Syria, and there’s a big Muslim community in Paris.

I’m really intrigued by those eternal questions of creation and belief and faith. I don’t care who you are, it’s what we all think about. It’s in the back of all our minds.

I wanted ‘Alien’ to be all about claustrophobia.

The key thing is you can be the only person, your own critic.

Sci-fi films are as dead as westerns.

By going to a preview, a director becomes insidiously infected by the process, so by the end of it, you’re thinking, ‘It may be a bit too long.’

Dad entered the Second World War like any other man, trying to do the right thing.

Everyone is tearing each other apart in the name of their personal god. And the irony is, by definition, they’re probably worshiping the same god.

I made the mistake of saying I was an atheist at one point, when I was doing ‘Kingdom of Heaven.’

I watch a lot of ‘National Geographic.’

I would like to have a bit of a break and do a comedy.

I do a pretty good job at casting actually.

I don’t make films for other people; I make films for me.

Anybody who does 90 takes has a problem.

I used to agonise over what to do next, but now I’m making a movie a year. It’s insane, but it’s only a movie after all. You just hang in there, and occasionally you might make something which you can call art… briefly.

Are we the first hominids? I really, really, really doubt it.

There’s still a lot of investors wondering what to invest in. And, of course, I think entertainment looks attractive when you read the few films that make these insane amounts of money. What they don’t know is they don’t always do that.

When I started the original ‘Alien,’ Ripley wasn’t a woman, it was a guy.

I get so used to working with writers that my prime occupation is development.

Some people like to do everything always the same thing. That’s another way: To do the same thing.

Sometimes, scenes are great without any music at all.

Same thing with film, by the time you’ve finished shooting and you’ve really been into everything, you’ve touched up everything in the editing room. You’ve gone in there and taken little bits from everything.

Actors are all different. They’re not all volatile. Some are sweet, some are volatile, but what is fundamentally in there is something that has to be paid attention to, in that they are, I would say, needy.

A hit for me is if I enjoy the movie, if I personally enjoy the movie.

When you’re at a certain point in your time – age, that is, when you’re older – you start to realize that, actually, what you leave behind you does count, and so you start to become fundamentally aware of your own destiny, which sounds very grand. It’s not grand at all, actually.

If you circle above Central Park at night in a helicopter, you’re looking down at the most expensive real estate in the world. It’s the American Monopoly board.

Fire is our first form of technology.

When you’re in the editing room, the dangerous thing is that it becomes like telling a joke again and again and again. Eventually, the joke starts to not be funny. So you have to be careful that you’re not throwing the baby out with the bath water.

The best stories come out of the truth.

The word ‘religion’ is only a label. What lies behind that, the most important thing of all, is the word ‘faith’. You either have faith, or you don’t have faith, or you have degrees of faith – and if you have degrees of faith, then you become agnostic. You’re kind of in-between, or you’re on the fence.

The 3D world allows you to engage even more with a film because you’re somehow drawn into the landscape or the universe of that scene. Even when it’s two people talking at a table, you feel like you’re a third party.

Any period is fascinating: the more ancient, the better.

That’s part of the policy: To keep switching gears.

Most people need the money all the time.

People have no idea how physically tough doing a film is.

On ‘Black Hawk Down,’ I was employing 1,000 Muslims. ‘Kingdom of Heaven,’ same deal except bigger, probably 1,500 Muslims.

As soon as you’re at the higher levels of budgeting, you’ve got to get the film made, and the only way to support the film is to have actors who can support the budget.

I’m a reader. I found out that, whether you’re a studio head or a director, you must read your own material. You can’t rely on readers.

I like a film such as ‘American Beauty,’ and I like ‘Spider-Man.’

Churchill strikes a note in my life because my father worked on Mulberry Harbour, which was the code name for the temporary concrete harbours which were towed across the Channel to make the D-day landings in France possible.

I’ve always avoided sequels, unless I felt there was something fresh.

One of the problems with science fiction, which is probably one of the reasons why I haven’t done one for many, many years, is the fact that everything is used up. Every type of spacesuit is used up, every type of spacecraft is vaguely familiar, the corridors are similar, and the planets are similar.

What’s interesting to me about Moses isn’t the big stuff that everybody knows.

We can’t terraform yet, but we know it exists.

Audiences are smarter than ever; they know if filmmakers cheat an environment.

Stanley Kubrick’s ‘2001’ was the door that opened up the possibility of science fiction for me. Everything else up to then was fine, but didn’t quite work for me.

The story of ‘Prometheus’ is the idea that if you’re given a gift from the gods, do not abuse it, and do not think you can compete.

I think there’s nothing worse than inertia. You can be inert and study your navel, and gradually fall off the chair. I think the key is to keep flying.

When you think about it, ‘Avatar’ is almost completely an animated movie.

Scaring someone’s the hardest thing to do, and that’s why most of these scary movies are not scary. They’re sick, but not scary. There’s a lot of sickness out there, of people who then sit there and watch it, which I think is absolutely dismaying.

I had a quite unconventional childhood, in the sense that I traveled a lot and I went to 10 or 11 schools. I was completely confused academically, but wherever I went, I could paint. I painted an inordinate amount.

I was one of those kids who tended to stay in on Saturday nights. My mother used to come and say, ‘Why don’t you go to the dance with the boys?’ And I’m going, ‘No, I’m perfectly happy.’ I think my parents thought I was definitely weird.

I am in a constant stage of development.

I love designing, and I still do it.

You could have ten scientists in this room. You could ask them all: ‘Who’s religious?’ About three to four will put their hands up.

I think if I’m going to do a science fiction, I’m going to go down a new path that I want to do.

Sometimes I find I’m wearing a divided, split brain in terms of drama and humor.

I was always amazed about how much I could finally squeeze into a thirty second commercial.

I knew exactly what to do on Alien, it was funny.

Technology continues to bring us wondrous advances in filmmaking to improve how we view movies.

Cast is everything.

The hardest single thing you do is get the bloody screenplay right.

And anyway, it’s only movies. to stop me I think they’ll ahve to shoot me in the head.

They say, ‘TV is not a captive audience,’ but it definitely is. You can easily switch off the bloody television.

‘Alien’ is a landmark. One of the really good science-fiction films.

I’ll reshoot a corridor 13 different ways, and you’ll never recognise them.

I have a healthy competitive nature.

On rare occasions, Dad used to reminisce about when he met Eisenhower and how Churchill would pop in, in the late hours of the evening or night, carrying a cigar, when he’d obviously had a good dinner.

I’ve got many letters from Muslim organizations thanking me for making ‘Kingdom of Heaven.’

Do what you haven’t done is the key, I think.