Michael Mann Mean Quotations

What I try to do - I mean 'try,' because you don't get there all the time - is to have impact with content. It's those moments in which you're trying to bring people beyond filmed theater. If I have an ambition, it's that.

And so, the challenging thing, ... is that you're going to have to change things in drama, of course. Either that, or you're doing a phone book. But at the same time, they have to mean the same thing. ... You can't take creative license as a license to be untruthful.

Could I have worked under a system where there were Draconian controls on my creativity, meaning budget, time, script choices, etc.? Definitely not. I would have fared poorly under the old studio system that guys like Howard Hawks did so well in. I cannot.