Directors on their Craft

A collection of quotes from directors on their particular field of work:


"A film is - or should be - more like music than like fiction. It should be a progression of moods and feelings. The theme, what's behind the emotion, the meaning, all that comes later." - Stanley Kubrick


"Learning to make films is easy. Learning what to make films about is very hard." - George Lucas


"Making a film that's supposed to be fun to watch is really hard - that's the weird irony of it." - Steven Soderbergh


"We went into this with the utmost respect for the source material, but we recognized the need to change it." - Sam Wood

"A film director has to get a shot, no matter what he does. We're desperate people." - Elia Kazan


"A good movie is three good scenes and no bad scenes." - Howard Hawks


"When I grow up, I still want to be a director." - Steven Spielberg


"We tend to do period stuff because it helps make it one step removed from boring everyday reality." - Ethan Coen

"I mean, the truth of the matter is, I like the failures as much as I like the successes. It's only the world that doesn't like the failures." - Sydney Pollack


"I mean look, I love movies, not just the ones I make. In fact, I don't like the ones I make very much." - Alexander Payne


"I don't try to guess what a million people will like. It's hard enough to know what I like."  - John Huston


"I've found that the more experts you have on a movie, the less control a director has." - John Frankenheimer

"I have ten commandments. The first nine are, thou shalt not bore. The tenth is, thou shalt have right of final cut." - Billy Wilder