Sam Taylor-Johnson Quotations

I believe that life is short, and there is too much time wasted bearing grudges, and I like to move on.

I only photograph myself at poignant moments in my life as a check of where I am and how large my thighs are.

If you love someone, you love someone. It doesn't matter; age, colour, c'mon!

My favorite part of the whole filmmaking process is working with a fantastic cinematographer, a fantastic actor or actors, and then just creating emotions and stories. I get so excited by that. That's the part I'm utterly addicted to.

You think, 'You hired me because I'm a creative artist with a vision. Don't try and knock it out of me.'

The thing that is so great about Ang Lee is the diversity in his filmmaking, from 'Brokeback...' to 'The Hulk.'

My mother reads tarot cards, actually, but I won't let her read mine.

A friend got me a job on the door of the Camden Palace nightclub, which quickly progressed to running the place.

A woman going out with a younger man feels like the last taboo.

Directing 'Fifty Shades of Grey' has been an intense and incredible journey for which I am hugely grateful. I have Universal to thank for that.

I am completely, utterly obsessed with clothes. To an embarrassing extent.

I am just reflecting the times. I can't ignore them.

I don't eat any dairy products at all, usually - it's a self-imposed ban. I've done it for a year now, since I was ill, but it's so hard.

I don't think you can judge something without seeing it.

I eat all the time, and I run all the time.

I feel like I became an artist by default. I went to art college, but my interest was always more towards film than painting or sculpture.

I get over-excited by every opportunity that comes my way. I end up doing too much.

I keep seeing in the papers that I am good friends with Samantha Cameron. I've never met her in my life.

I love showing my scar on my tummy - it is shaped like a question mark.

I think I just love films where men have complete breakdowns.

I think I was lucky I got into art college. That's what saved me.

I think it was Elisabeth Shue who said that if you start a movie with a woman seen through a man's eyes, that woman is objectified by him throughout.

When I was out in Georgia doing photographs, I found myself trying to undo my own sense of composition. I'd think, 'Why do I want to take it like this? Is it because I want to take a beautiful picture?' It's quite hard to try and undo it.

When I decide I want something, I go in like an Exocet missile.

When I had cancer, people were surprised at how cheerful and upbeat I was, but I couldn't let myself go to depression - to go there, that defeat would allow everything in. If you look too far into the abyss, you might never come out again. You can stand on the abyss and peep but not give in to sadness.

Shooting at Coco Chanel's apartment was an unexpectedly absorbing experience. The essence of Chanel is firmly rooted there in all of her possessions, and I truly believe that her spirit and soul still inhabit the second floor.

Mum and Dad split up when I was nine. We upped and moved from London to Sussex, and suddenly I went from an urban life to nothing in the countryside - with a new father and new life.

I'd like to make something about someone who hasn't existed so that I don't have to tread so carefully and can feel a little bit more creative freedom.

I don't understand why there aren't more powerful female directors. I don't have the answers, but I hope that things may start to shift and that studios will employ more women to handle strong and interesting material.

I always say, and I truly believe this, that my work is three steps ahead of me. I have an idea for something, and I tend to feel like it's leading me, and I'll follow the process through, and it's not until after I've seen it that I truly understand why I'm doing this.

Today is the tomorrow I worried about yesterday.

There are terrible things going on in the world, but I am not going to force them down everyone's throats.

I was determined to have a spotless house when I grew up.

I was always interested in film, but I never knew how to go about becoming a filmmaker.

I was living with my stepfather for a while, and then I moved out and went and lived on my own in Hastings-by-the-Sea from about 16.

I think the whole of people's psychology and where they are in life interests me, and the decisions you make that take you on particular journeys to different places.

Just because you've faced your own mortality, it doesn't make it any less frightening.

My stepfather was quite into opera, but he'd play it when he was in a bad mood, so you'd hear this boom through the floor, Wagner, and you'd feel nervous.

My mum told me once I was a Hindu.

My mum has always been quite free-spirited, and she has taught me a lot. I think that is probably why I have the sort of mind that I do.

My parents were Beatle fans, but my mom was especially a Lennon fan, so I was exposed to him more. I remember her playing 'Double Fantasy' quite often.

I think, for me, Julian Schnabel set a great precedent in being able to cross over so successfully. I feel like his artwork is kind of big, grand, and bombastic, yet the films that he makes are very beautifully sensitive, and I just feel that his filmmaking sensibility is very different from his artwork.

My biggest fears aren't with my work. My biggest fears are walking through hospital doors. Once you can face that, being fearless about your work is easy.

The pictures I make come from every blink of my lashes.

When I was eight, a hippie guy taught me how to meditate and gave me this scarf I was supposed to wear when I meditated. I still have it; it's probably one of the items that mean most to me.

When you have an author and an auteur, it's a difficult and challenging relationship.

When Scorsese or Coppola cast celebrities in their work, it goes without question.

Finding your place as an artist is the hardest thing. You come out of college with what feels like a Mickey Mouse degree that qualifies you for nothing in the real world.

You have to be brave when you've got a kid.

To be feminist doesn't mean you can't be submissive.

Even today I work with Niall O'Brien, who is far more technically astute than I am, but I still have the clearest idea of every detail I want in my photograph.

The way I was grew up gave me a slight fearlessness and a sense of independence. There are things about it that have definitely informed me. And then, as a parent, it's done the opposite. It's made me feel much more protective. There are boundaries in my kids' lives that I don't think I had.

It would be nice to be a bit autonomous again, to enjoy something a bit quiet.

Sometimes when you're looking at your own work, you can't really see, and it's only when you step back a little bit later that you think, 'Oh, that's completely in line with everything else I've done.'

Tea is a huge part of my life.

Sometimes photographing people is like pulling teeth, trying to get some sort of personality.

People tell you you're having chemotherapy, but there are different types of chemotherapy, and you don't know which one you're going to get and how it's going to affect you. The people in the hospitals don't always have time to help you understand it.

Despite great advances in women's rights, statistics show that when it comes to the balance of power between the sexes, equality is far from being a global reality.

It was so amazing to fall crazily in love and get married and have kids.

It's difficult for me to work with women, because I find that direct references are made back to me too fast. Working with men, it gives it a little distance.

I want to protect my vision, and that's the hardest thing.

I try to leave things as open ended as possible, not too overladen with meaning.

I'm twitchy. I think I've got ADD. I find it hard to sit down. I need to be constantly challenged; otherwise, I get very... well, I guess 'bored' is the word.

In 'Fifty Shades,' seemingly, Christian has all the power and control - but actually, Anastasia does.

I'm motivated every second by my work; it doesn't switch off.

I'm not a shouter, and I'm not a bully.

I'm interested in the acting and staging of specific emotions, and so I work with actors. It's a small proportion of what I do, but it's always what people seem to focus on.

I'm annoying to be around because I keep twitching.

If you have the ideas, and you're a creative person, then you don't really differentiate in how your ideas manifest themselves.

If you look at art history, at Goya or Gainsborough, it's always about acknowledging the people of your time who have influence.

In the old days, 'controversial' in a relationship meant same-sex or mixed races.

I can be a bit extreme. I'll spend too much time running round the park, doing yoga and drinking green tea. I can get a bit obsessive. I have to rein it in sometimes.

The line between private and public lives is a fertile one for me. I've lived quite a public life, and it's the reason I have used well-known people in my work. I'm interested in what's going on beneath the facades they present to the world, taking them to a place which is uncomfortable.