Director Quotes

I hate the Communists and have for many years and don't feel right about giving up my career to defend them. I will give up my film career if it is in the interests of defending something I believe in, but not this.

I gave my life to the Group Theatre, because in it I'm building something for myself. What I build, I am.

I don't remember anything anybody said in any Jack Ford picture. Nothing happens except action.

I didn't have that much confidence. Maybe it looks that way. I'm glad it does.

Hey, you must be doin' good, 'cause I never hear from you.

For years after I resigned, I was still faithful to their way of thinking. But not in the American Communists.

Every picture that is successful has one little miracle in it.

Acting... was the biggest charge I ever had. What other artist has it so good? Approval so quick?

A good director's not sure when he gets on the set what he's going to do.

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

To be a member of the Communist Party is to have a taste of the police state. It is a diluted taste but is bitter and unforgettable.

The writer, when he is also an artist, is someone who admits what others don't dare reveal.

I would rather do what I did than crawl in front of a ritualistic Left and lie the way those other comrades did betray my own soul.

I was taken in by what might be called the Hard Times version of the Communists' advertising or recruiting technique.

I value peace when it is not bought at the price of fundamental decencies.

I knew the exuberance of playing before an admiring audience and hearing my secret voice.

Anybody who informs on other people is doing something disturbing and even disgusting.

I was an outsider... but I was also sympathetic with people that were struggling to get up, because I struggled to get up.

I used to spend most of my time straining to be a nice guy so people would like me.

I like directors who come on the set and create something that's a little dangerous, difficult or unusual.

I may be getting old, but not foolish.

I spoke without fear of contradiction. I simply did not suffer self-doubt.

What's called a difficult decision is a difficult decision because either way you go there are penalties.

Every fighter has one fight that makes or breaks him.

You want to enjoy making a movie - it's a wonderful, collaborative thing.

When I started my filmmaking journey 17 years ago, I honestly didn't know what a documentary film was.

So I've tried to be this very eccentric character, and that works very well if you want to be a painter which I did once upon a time, if you want to be a musician which I did once upon a time. But if you want to make movies and you want to make challenging movies, you've got to be the sanest person

No, I'm a very normal and orthodox person that goes out of their way to present eccentricity. It's not that I do that so much now but I've been doing it for so many years that it's become routine now.

I've come up through art school, through painting, through graphic design, through advertising, through TV commercials and music video. I've designed books, built billboards, matchbooks, corporate identities. I continuously paint, I've done conceptual art pictures.

I'm trying to make as many films as I can.