Glenn Ficarra

John Requa

Thomas McCarthy

Tony Kaye

“[on American History X] Some people think it's a great film; I think it could have been better.”

Vittorio De Sica

“I've lost all my money on these films. They are not commercial. But I'm glad to lose it this way. To have for a souvenir of my life pictures like Umberto D. and The Bicycle Thief.”

Andrea Arnold

“Dramatically, I like darkness, I like conflict - but I don't see the world as defined by them. And why would I pretend to? That's not who I am.”

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.”

Paul Schrader

“What fascinates me are people who want to be one thing but who behave in a way contradictory to that. Who might say, ‘I want to be happy, but I keep doing things that make me unhappy.”

Brad Anderson

John Cameron Mitchell

“It’s ultimately a boring thing, your sexuality – inherently neutral and kind of dull. It’s what you do with it that’s interesting.”

Derek Cianfrance

[On making 'Blue Valentine'] “There was one day where we were shooting on the bus. That's a bit of a movie trope - the encounter on a bus - and yet when we shot that scene, we had a rainbow come out of nowhere. When stuff like that happens, and I know it sounds kind of corny, but you really feel that you are doing the right thing at the right time.”

Stan Brakhage

“There are a lot of movies made for nobody.”

Marc Forster

“When you grow up like that, and suddenly you decide you intend to make movies, everybody says, 'It's impossible.' And I'm here and I'm living my dream.”

Claire Denis

“Even if it's the dream of a voyage, I think it was very important for me that the film offer the two sides of the globe.”

Tomas Alfredson

“The soundscape is fifty percent of the experience. Any kid can nowadays easily point out where and how you’ve made certain visual effects, but very rarely what they’ve experienced with their ears. This is still an enormous orchestra to conduct, which is in the dark for the audience.”

Mark Romanek

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.”

David Lynch

“I don't think about technique. The ideas dictate everything. You have to be true to that or you're dead.”

Federico Fellini

“What is an artist? A provincial who finds himself somewhere between a physical reality and a metaphysical one...”

Woody Allen

“Comedy just pokes at problems, rarely confronts them squarely. Drama is like a plate of meat and potatoes, comedy is rather the dessert, a bit like meringue.”