John Stockwell

“[Screenwriting is] a lonely, miserable profession. But the pay can be okay and you get to spend a lot of time in Hawaii.”

Griffin Dunne

“If movies are set in New York, they really should be shot in New York.”

Vincent Gallo

“I constantly try to reinvent my sensibilities and my ideas. I enjoy some of the satisfaction that I get when I feel good about what I've done. But the process is quite lonely and quite painful.”

Jonas Åkerlund

“When someone's paying you to do a job, which is most of the time, you always have to respect your clients. But if I could make a beautiful film and at the same time make people think, then that's perfect.”

David Twohy

Roger Donaldson

Iain Softley

Kelly Reichardt

“I like working in a really private way. I mean, we got as far as a cut of [Old Joy] without speaking to any kind of lawyer or anything. We got into Sundance before we thought we should form a company. Aside from a lot of sound work and stuff still to go, it was all very private, and that’s a dream for me.”

Guillermo del Toro

“I like actors that are good with pantomime and that can transmit a lot by their presence and attitude more than through their dialogue.”

Mario Van Peebles

“History is written by the winners. The books say the Indians were bad guys and the whites just needed a little land. It’s like, Excuse me, let me take your car. I’m discovering it. I’m putting my flag on your windshield.”

Zack Snyder

“In the zombie movie world, that's how you affirm your friendship. When someone really loves you, they blow your head off.”

Martin McDonagh

“I can't stand up in front of people. It just fills me with horror.”

Howard Hawks

“I'm a storyteller—that's the chief function of a director. And they're moving pictures, let's make 'em move!”

Peter Jackson

“The most honest form of filmmaking is to make a film for yourself. The worst type is dictated by demographics or what is hip or what kids are into.”

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.”

Nicolas Winding Refn

“Art is an act of violence.”

Andrew Niccol

Warren Beatty

“Movies are fun, but they’re not a cure for cancer.”

Paul Haggis

“The worst thing you can do to a filmmaker is to walk out of his film and go, "That was a nice movie." But if you can cause people to walk out and then argue about the film on the sidewalk ... I think we're all seeking dissension, and we love to affect an audience.”

Catherine Breillat

“When I shoot a film, I always project myself into one of the characters, at once into either a man or a woman...”