Sergei Parajanov

“I believe you have to be born a director. It’s like a child’s adventure: you take the initiative among other children and become a director, creating a mystery. You mould things into shape and create.”

Wong Kar-wai

“Sometimes they think the way we work is very stylish and romantic, but actually it's the way we can survive and make the films. We can work with the things that we get, but not the things we wish we had.”

Ringo Lam

[On Jean-Claude Van Damme]: “He couldn’t act for shit.”

Yuen Woo-ping

David Cronenberg

“Anybody who comes to the cinema is bringing their whole sexual history, their literary history, their movie literacy, their culture, their language, their religion, whatever they've got. I can't possibly manipulate all of that, nor do I want to.”

Quentin Tarantino

“I don't believe in elitism. I don't think the audience is this dumb person lower than me. I am the audience.”

Park Chan-wook

“The audience seems hazy to me, shrouded in a veil through which I can't see.”

Takashi Miike

“I don't think about the audience, I don't think about what makes them happy, because there's no way for me to know. They think of the audience as a mass, but in fact every person in the audience is different. So entertainment for everyone doesn't exist.”

Tsui Hark

“It may seem like the martial arts world has always been dominated by male characters. But that's only the physical difference. My idea is to create an impact when you see a woman fighter fighting with all the might of a man.”

Terry Gilliam

“You get trapped by stories. Though I've got this reputation for being out of control, it's not true, it just happens to be a more interesting story than the truth.”

Akira Kurosawa

“Movie directors, or should I say people who create things, are very greedy and they can never be satisfied...that's why they can keep on working. I've been able to work for so long because I think next time, I'll make something good.”

Budd Boetticher

“The Western formula: A man has a job to do, or a couple of men. They try to do it against tremendous odds. They do it.”

Sergio Leone

“In my childhood, America was like a religion. Then, real-life Americans abruptly entered my life in jeeps and upset all my dreams.”

Seijun Suzuki

“I was never rebellious, I was just mischievous!”

Jan Švankmajer

“I never call myself an animated filmmaker because I am interested not in animation techniques or creating a complete illusion, but in bringing life to everyday objects.”

Alejandro Jodorowsky

“Most directors make films with their eyes; I make films with my testicles.”

Stanley Kubrick

“If it can be written, or thought, it can be filmed.”