Kim Ki-duk Quotations

A director should not define everything. For me, the movie is a form of a question I pose to the others or to the audience. I want to ask their opinion on my point of view and discuss it with them.

I don't have the ability to find a middle ground with my audiences, and I know this too well.

I always concentrate on respecting human beings and their lives and the meaning within their lives, and I believe that is something people around the world can appreciate.

Many people who have watched 'Pieta' have said my filmmaking has become more objective.

I don't really know how I grow. I can only see the changes when I look at the films.

Yes I did study to be a preacher, but I didn't finish.

An artist's creative energy is ephemeral as a flower. It blooms and soon dies. No artist is great forever. Personally, I think I reached my peak in 2004 when I shot 'Samaria' and '3-Iron'.

A person's current personality of love, hatred, jealousy, rage or a murderous intent and so on is formed upon genetic elements, education, the environment and a family a person grows in.

I don't think that the spoken words solve everything. Sometimes silence delivers truer feelings while the words can distort the meaning in some situations.

I intended to portray the joy, anger, sorrow and pleasure of our lives through four seasons and through the life of a monk who lives in a temple on Jusan Pond surrounded only by nature.