Robert Wise Quotations

Lugosi was not well. I had to coach him through some scenes, and I was very pleased when Karloff came on the scene and was very sensitive in coaching him through the sequences. Lugosi was one of the finest actors I ever worked with.

My answer to that is that I've tried to approach each genre in a cinematic style that I think is right for that genre . . . that accounts for the mix of styles.

I don't know that I had any particular "influence," but when I came into the business my idols were people like John Ford and Willy Wyler and Howard Hawkes, later on Joseph Mankiewicz and others like that. But I don't know that I picked up, necessarily, anything. Of course Orson was a big influence.

I don't know that I had any particular ""influence,"" but when I came into the business my idols were people like John Ford and Willy Wyler and Howard Hawkes, later on Joseph Mankiewicz and others like that. But I don't know that I picked up, necessarily, anything. Of course Orson was a big influence.

He was a little of both. I didn't know much in those days, because it was only my third film. I was learning on my feet and he taught me a great deal. He was very open to actors' suggestions and he used whatever spontaneous thoughts or suggestions we might have, if they suited his purpose. He was a firm, but gentle leader.

His mood in the morning depended on what went on at home, but I never met an actor quite like him, ... He knew exactly what worked for him on screen and knew what he could get away with.

It blows my mind every time I think about the fact that he's out there with us. He's always telling us about how tough his practices were at Ohio State, and it kind of gives us something to live up to. There are no practices when we don't finish breathing hard.

Ordinarily, I don't like to start shooting on a Monday. I prefer to begin in the middle of the week, if I can. On the first day, everyone's a little nervous and anxious, so you have a couple of days' shooting and then the weekend to get re-grouped and catch your breath.

Some of the more esoteric critics claim there's no Robert Wise style,

Some of the more esoteric critics claim that there's no Robert Wise style or stamp. My answer to that is that I've tried to approach each genre in a cinematic style that I think is right for that genre. I wouldn't have approached 'The Sound of Music' the way I approached 'I Want to Live!' for anything, and that accounts for a mix of styles.

We were getting completely behind schedule and over budget, and the studio heads were convinced it was because it was being co-directed.

We believe most of the transition is going to start this summer.

We want you to take over Monday morning, ... I had 10 days to finish it and I finished it on time.

I've often wondered if maybe I tried to tell too many stories in The Sand Pebbles.

I've always been proud of being a Hoosier. When I talk to people, I tell them that.

I've always been proud of being a Hoosier, ... When I talk to people, I tell them that.

It was just a job to start with, you know,

I had to come out here and go to work and I came off all right,

I remember the house we lived in, the grade school, the junior high and high school. I remember one time we had a fire in the high school so we couldn't go there. We had to go to the junior high school for a year.

Citizen Kane was a marvelous film to work on--well planned and well-shot,

I'd rather do my own thing, which has been to choose projects that take me into all different kinds of genres. I don't have a favorite kind of film to make. I just look for the best material I can find.

You know, people always think if you start out as a film editor, you shoot less footage. Actually, just the opposite is true. I tend to grab as much coverage as I can because as a former editor I know how important it is to have those few frames.

You can't tell any kind of a story without having some kind of a theme, something to say between the lines.

You look back on films sometimes and if they have not been as all-out successful as you anticipated you try to find reasons why maybe it didn't come off for audiences as well as you would have liked.

A reflection of my feelings about the space program is found in a quotation from Charles A. Lindbergh's "Autobiography of Values." It reads, "Whether outwardly or inwardly, whether in space or time, the farther we penetrate the unknown, the vaster and more marvelous it becomes."

Of all the stars whom I worked with, I think Steve knew better what worked for him on the screen than any other. He had such a sense of what he could register, and that helped a lot in terms of shaping the character and the script.

The Sand Pebbles has always been one of my favorite films, I suppose because its the most difficult film - from a physical and logistical standpoint - that I've ever made.

A Mac is a closed box, so Apple can make decisions about things that they don't include. That makes, it in some ways, simpler for them.

I think one of the major things a director has to do is to know his subject matter, the subject matter of his script, know the truth and the reality of it. That's very important.

As I've always said, preproduction is so important. When you cast the actors, you've done much of the work. Now, you may need to guide them a little, take it up or down, have them go faster or slower, but the casting process is crucial.

My three Ps: passion, patience, perseverance. You have to do this if you've got to be a filmmaker.