Directors Quotations

I would love to occasionally do English-speaking films, but the script is as important for me as the director.

I love the Japanese director Shohei Imamura. His masterpiece in 1979 called, the English title was 'Vengeance is Mine.

Talent has no gender. People are hiring young male directors right out of film school, off of a student film or off of a film at Sundance for millions of dollars. You can do the same with a female. It's not a risk about the work if you respect the film that they made.

There are lots of actors who insist on speaking the lines themselves, and you hear the same thing from directors and the audience, but I don't think it's worth getting het up about. I think it makes more sense to use someone who speaks that country's language: that's what voice actors are for.

I am half Puerto Rican, a quarter German and a quarter black. That was always a big issue for me - being mixed race - because casting directors tended to be very like, 'OK, are you Hispanic for this role?' 'Or is she going to be African American?'

Casting directors don't necessarily want a more recognizable commercial face. Sometimes, they want a lesser known person.

In every shoot, between the actor and the director there is manipulation. I'm not saying that negatively. It's healthy.

Being a conductor is kind of a hybrid profession because most fundamentally, it is being someone who is a coach, a trainer, an editor, a director.

The profession of film director can and should be such a high and precious one; that no man aspiring to it can disregard any knowledge that will make him a better film director or human being.

Being a producer, I deal with a lot of different directors, and some of them would drive me insane with all the different histrionics, and the mystique that they carry.

Directing is the last frontier for women in the movie business. We are studio heads, we are producers and we are writers, but we are not directors in any numbers.

Just being hired by a great director is complimentary.

If it can be written, or thought, it can be filmed.

As a director, you should choose a project that will educate you and enrich your life, because you're going to be doing it for two years.

Good directors can bring certain things out of you, with their intensity or gentleness or sensitivity or understanding. They can make an actor feel he can do no wrong.

I feel fortunate. I've really gotten to work with amazing talented people, and to learn from them, which is why I'm doing this. If I can work with the best director I'm going to do it.

Casting directors tend to be the unsung heroes in this business.

An action choreographer is kind of like a dance choreographer. You choreograph the moves and you let the director, cinematographer take into positioning their cameras.

The best thing about switching from being an actor to being a director is that you dont have to shave or hold your stomach in anymore.

Obviously with the onset of cable and satellite, there are more opportunities for programming and original programming, so it creates more opportunities for actors and producers and directors and everything.

I loved making 'The Hunger Games' - it was the happiest experience of my professional life. Lionsgate was supportive of me in a manner that few directors ever experience in a franchise: they empowered me to make the film I wanted to make and backed the movie in a way that requires no explanation beyond the remarkable results.

A Director Makes Only One Movie in His Life. Then He Breaks It Into Pieces and Makes It Again.

Sometimes I take the watch, or I take the shoes, but usually the souvenir is to take the life you had with those directors, or the crew - the camera person, the lighting person. When you finish a film it's like a little death. You had a family for a bit, and you finish the movie and you probably will never see each other again.

Id love to see more women working as directors and producers.

The only person who has artistic control is the director, and 'director' is how you spell God in Hollywood.

I think today there are too many directors taking themselves seriously; the only one capable of saying anything really new and interesting is Luis Bunuel. He's a very great director.

You don't even need the director's judgement. It's too much.

Richard Donner is one of the few directors in Hollywood that can make whatever movie he wants exactly the way he wants it. No one will stop him.

Since stepping down as laboratory director in 1999, I have devoted an increasing fraction of my time to international issues. I am involved with energy, environment, and sustainability issues, particularly as they involve new energy sources free of greenhouse gases.

It's nice, because after you've worked with various directors and producers enough times, they start to know your voice and what you're capable of.

Directors who turn into big babies and shut out criticism stop learning.

If I feel the part is right, and I know that the producers and the director want me, I'd go for broke. Always.

I kind of have an interest in all history. And I suspect it comes from being Irish - we like stories, we like telling stories, which makes a lot of us lean towards being writers or actors or directors.

When you're in a soap, it's fantastic, and I'm really grateful for the fans who watch you and support you. For me, it was the best experience because I was able to act every day and work with so many different directors and get some great storylines and learn on-screen.

What worries me are these so-called radio stations with program directors who don't play all the different flavors of hip-hop. They should play the old with the new, 24/7, 365 days a year. A lot of these program directors are just jiving around and not playing all the good music for the people.

Having an investor on your board of directors who is naive about public markets or finds them complex or scary is non-optimal.

I'm a storyteller - that's the chief function of a director. And they're moving pictures, let's make 'em move!

I'm only wanted by directors for the image I give off, and it makes me angry. I always wanted to be an actor and not a beauty pageant winner.

Bad directors will tell you they absolutely know how to do it, and how it has to happen; there's this insecurity that leads them to feeling like they have to control everything.

The director is the channel through which a motion picture reaches the screen.

A film is a director's vision... there is, however, much input an actor or actress can have.

The film of tomorrow will resemble the person who made it, and the number of spectators will be proportional to the number of friends the director has.

It's possible for me to make a bad movie out of a good script, but I can't make a good movie from a bad script.

One thing I know is that I don't want to be a director for hire, making genre films.

Most screenplays depend primarily on the vision of a director.

I did this thing for HBO called 'Strip Search' with Sidney Lumet, who was one of the best directors I've ever worked with. We actually had a rehearsal period before we shot, which is unusual.

For us, as actors, and even for the director, it gave us a sense of authenticity to what we were doing because we were talking about Hollywood and we were in Hollywood

I happen to have worked with male directors who don't understand women at all. Not at all. I'm flabbergasted by their ignorance.

Some directors were brilliant in the silent era but never felt at home in sound. It's like a sculptor being forced to take up painting.

In my first film, we always tried to have a script and work in a normal way, but I was constantly changing things during shooting. Because I worked as a scriptwriter for 10 years, I understood that directors always wanted to change what was originally written, to improve on it.

As an action director, I always try to bring something fresh and new.

A lot of directors keep writers away because the writers know the script better than anybody, obviously they do, and they have certain intents. But a lot of people would be surprised to know that writers are pretty flexible when it comes to their work.

A lot of these roles that I feel like I've had some sort of impact, or that have had an effect on me, have always been with directors who have the time to somehow get to know me. Any good director's going to be curious about who it is that's coming aboard.

The great directors managed to dissolve and disappear into the work. They make other people look good.

Do you know what I'm working on now? My first feature as a director.

On every movie I've done as a director, I look at the producers and having done it, I don't envy them, at all.

David Fincher is one of the best directors I know, so I'm really curious to see it. Really curious, and I want to hear Daniel have the Swedish accent.

Human nature is not amenable to prediction based on the trends or tendencies prevailing at the time. It is amenable to startling creativity of the kind practiced by great artists, directors, writers, musicians, actors, who know how to touch a chord in humans everywhere.

I've been able to work with great directors in Israel.

The record producer is the music world's equivalent of a film director.

Most directors that I've worked with - I've worked with before, especially in Holland - and they know that I'm somebody who talks and asks, and talks, and talks, and talks and questions and turns things around. I'm like a little cat, walking around my little nest until I find my place.

I became a director just for the love of movies, because of the power of cinema.

Both of my parents are actors and directors and whatnot. My dad loves really solid, old school, Broadway musicals, and one of them is 'Assassins' by Stephen Sondheim. All of the successful or non-successful assassins that have ever existed in the United States come together, and they talk about their killing or attempts through songs.

As an actress, I always felt like the people you met on set were interchangeable with the people you met on other sets - the grips, the gaffers, the actors, the directors - everybody steps into their role.

The lack of women directors is a sad fact of life. Kathryn Bigelow's thrilling Best Director win may help turn things around.

When I on set as a director I crazy. My temper is not that good.

I don't want to know movie directors. I don't want to be close to them. I don't want to interfere with their work. I don't want them to interfere with mine.

Frank Miller is more of a visionary than any director I've ever worked with, and he achieves that vision better than anyone I've ever worked with.

A director shouldn't get in the way of the movie, the story should.

I randomly went to a casting session in my hometown in North Carolina, and the casting director introduced me to my manager. I really lucked into it!

Have you noticed how most directors are either bald or grey-haired?

Sometimes a director is making three films. Perhaps he is shooting a film in Madras and a film in Bombay and he can't leave Madras as some shooting has to be done, so he directs by telephone. The shooting takes place. On schedule.

Directing, I just feel comfortable. I know what I want. I know what I want from my crew. I lead by example. I have limitless energy as a director.

All the directors that I've had the opportunity to work with are fantastic.

As for the Canadians - good actors and good directors are sometimes taken by the American market, you know, if they're good enough.

I would love to get great performances from actors as a director, because that's what I'm always looking for, a director that's going to help me go places I've never been before.

Some directors don't say much. Michael Mann, for example. I remember on 'The Insider' he never had much to say. He would do a scene, just kind of nod, and then set it up to do it again. And you might do a scene 10 or 12 times or more, the same little 31-second bit. And you could tell he wasn't satisfied, but he wouldn't say much.

The Screen Directors Guild was organized solely by and for the motion picture director... We are not anti-anything: The Guild being formed for the purpose of assisting and improving the director's work in the form of a collective body, rather than as an individual, as was necessary in the past.

For me, there was never an end game for becoming a director.

I had never thought of myself as a director and found out that I was not. I am a writer who was able to direct the films that I write.

Here, we have female directors and producers; in fact, one whole channel is run by a woman. Pakistani TV is progressive, and hence, characters that are shown are of today as well.

I depend on good editors and a good director.

Your audience gives you everything you need. They tell you. There is no director who can direct you like an audience.

I think it's very boring for a director to always do the same kind of movies.

With Kubrick and most film directors, they are in complete control, but one can influence them.

I have been a director who has starred, participated on both sides of the filmmaking process.

I'm one of the few directors that actually shoots a lot in camera.

The director is the only person who knows what the film is about.

For a director and a producer to be named on the writing credits is practically unheard of.

Directors are denied a great pleasure, which is that of being on stage.

A film's success or failure is strictly on the director's shoulders.

It's tough as an artist to have such a specific vision for your video in mind when you write a song. Reaching out to directors is like going on blind dates and trying to find someone who sees the exact vision behind your music, which can be really difficult.

As a Japanese actor, I really want to work with a lot of actors and actresses in the world and many directors who have many different kinds of talents. I feel like nationally doesn't matter at all.

Film is shot in fragments, and the same moments can be shot again and again until the director is satisfied.

Carefully execute every instruction given to you by the director, producer, and studio. But that would be a life not worth living.

Curiously enough, I was one of the first to have some say in Hollywood. By sheer accident, I had four successes in a row in the early 30's and, although I was still in my 20's, I demanded and received approval of cast, story and director. I don't know how I got away with it, but I did!

You have to get it in your brain that you don't belong to yourself as an actor, but that you belong to the director who creates the character.

Outside their country, Hungarian directors have had, from the critics at least, a friendly reception.

I've always had the utmost respect and awe of what the lens can do and what a director can do with just a camera move.

I'm very fortunate to have the privilege of working with directors like Bill Condon and Paul Thomas Anderson, who I think is one of the greatest filmmakers of our time.