Peter Watkins

“I think that the main impact on my work, on the making of this film, came from the intensity of the similarity I felt to Edvard Munch as a man, as an artist, as someone who struggled throughout his life.”

Małgorzata Szumowska

Richard Kern

“Everything else seemed so pretentious, so we were always trying to do stuff that was totally unjustifiable.”

Lukas Moodysson

“I'm not particularly interested in probing the depths of my soul; I'm more into probing the world around me.”

Steve McQueen

“My influences come from real life. I’m not interested in cinema for cinema’s sake. I’m interested in life—what one does and how one interacts.”

Mario Bava

“In a horror film, lighting is 70% of the effectiveness. It’s essential in creation the atmosphere.”

Bruce Robinson

“My whole philosophy of film-making – not that I’ve done it much – is that it’s a conspiracy. Conspire in Latin means ‘to breathe with’, and that’s how I feel about making a film. I want everyone to be making the film, not just me telling them what to do, because these guys are all experts in their field”

Rainer Werner Fassbinder

“It isn't easy to accept that suffering can also be beautiful...it's difficult. It's something you can only understand if you dig deeply into yourself.”

Frank Perry

Bruno Dumont

“I studied philosophy because it demands an intellectual outlook on the world [...] But I soon discovered that philosophy was too subjective: it lacks heart, it’s over-intellectual, and I found that it made me cut myself off from the everyday.”

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.”

Roger Guenveur Smith

Mathieu Kassovitz

“I have a hard enough time speaking for myself - I don't pretend I can be a spokesman for anybody. I have no interest in playing that role.”

Miranda July

“As a filmmaker, the last thing you want to do is place kids in emotional or physical jeopardy. Especially for me, coming from a place of really loving those kids.”

David Mackenzie

Marina de Van

Jean-Pierre Melville

“I believe that you must be madly in love with cinema to create films. You also need a huge cinematic baggage.”

Nobuhiko Obayashi

Giorgos Lanthimos

Tsai Ming-liang

“The body always plays an important role in my films. You could say the body is the most beautiful thing we have or you could say it’s the ugliest thing we have. We can sell bodies, we can adore or worship bodies.”