John Woo

“The movies I like to make are very rich and full of passion. Some people see me as an action director, but action is not the only thing in my movies. I always like to show human nature - something deep inside the heart.”

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.”

Adam Elliot

“All my films are essentially about difference and the way we perceive ourselves and others.”

Monte Hellman

“I've been in love with the movies as long as I can remember.”

Isabel Coixet

“Women blame themselves for everything that is wrong, and men never do that. We have to stop blaming ourselves for what we don’t have and start asking for what we deserve, whether it’s more money or more work or whatever.”

Tom Ford

Paul Verhoeven

“People love seeing violence and horrible things. The human being is bad and he can't stand more than five minutes of happiness. Put him in a dark theater and ask him to look at two hours of happiness and he'd walk out or fall asleep.”

Billy Wilder

“If you're going to tell people the truth, be funny or they'll kill you.”

Richard Donner

“In motion pictures, the actor rules. The camera served the actor. ”

Cary Fukunaga

“Definitely faces are important to me. One of my problems with a lot of things I watch is that everybody’s too pretty and it takes me out of the film because I’m thinking that all these people look like I’ve seen them in a café in Los Angeles.”

Miguel Arteta

“Fear is the enemy of storytelling.”

Alex Cox

“Sorry, but there is no pleasure in finding new ways of saying the same stuff about projects which tanked.”

Zach Helm

Derek Jarman

“I wouldn’t wish the eighties on anyone, it was the time when all that was rotten bubbled to the surface. If you were not at the receiving end of this mayhem you could be unaware of it.”

Tom Savini

“I think of special effects as magic tricks, as illusion. ”

Greg Mottola

Mikael Håfström

Brian De Palma

“So I like to try to go back and develop pure visual storytelling. Because to me, it's one of the most exciting aspects of making movies and almost a lost art at this point. ”

David Gordon Green

“People think 'independent' means no interference. Not true. Unless you're paying for everything yourself, you're always subject to who's writing the checks.”

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.”