Kazuhiro Soda

Alan Clarke

“They're just actors. I much prefer the real thing!”

Ryosuke Hashiguchi

So Yong Kim

[on casting "Treeless Mountain"] "When I met Hee Yeon, I knew she would be perfect. She had this unusual self-confidence and strength. From our first interview, Hee Yeon challenged me in a way that young Korean children do not normally question authority. I discovered Song Hee, who plays Bin, through a photograph which was sent to me by my assistant in Korea. I fell in love with her face."

Trinh T. Minh-ha

“Speaking, writing, and discoursing are not mere acts of communication; they are above all acts of compulsion. Please follow me. Trust me, for deep feeling and understanding require total committment.”

Jafar Panahi

“In a world where films are made with millions of dollars, we made a film about a little girl who wants to buy a fish for less than a dollar.”

Mikio Naruse

“From the youngest age, I have thought that the world we live in betrays us; this thought still remains with me.”

Hong Sang-soo

“When I finish a film, I feel like I have overcome a certain hurdle. It's really good for me as a human being, and I hope that for some people, my films will do the same thing.”

Alex Karpovsky

“Remember to have fun and remember that we’re all dead in about three seconds.”

Caveh Zahedi

“I’m interested in the performance of everyday life. I think that everyone is always performing. Adding a camera definitely complicates the performance, but it’s a question of degree rather than an ontological difference.”

Asghar Farhadi

Edward Yang

“I was the leader of the Taiwanese new wave. All these guys would just gather in my house, talking and laughing and drinking: Hou Hsiao-hsien, Wu Nien-jen — just about all of them. You could just push open the door. Everyone just wanted to do similar things. We weren’t allowed to, and no one was willing to give us any money to, but we shared all these idealistic thoughts.”

Chantal Akerman

“When people ask me if I am a feminist film maker, I reply I am a woman and I also make films.”

Jacques Tati

“Like a dancer learns to dance ... a visual comic learns to use his legs.”

Allan King

“[Cinema-]verite is the most terrifying, challenging and, if it works, the most rewarding filmmaking experience. It's the next best thing to being a writer.”

Mohsen Makhmalbaf

“From my films, you can at least learn about Iran, you can get a sense of the history and the society. But no such films have been made about Afghanistan, so you really can't know much about it.”

Frederick Wiseman

“There are lots of different ways to make film. I don’t believe there has to be any orthodox way to making movies, or any rules. It’s what works for the filmmaker, and, theoretically, the audience.”

Kazuo Hara

“I make bitter films. I hate mainstream society.”

Joanna Hogg

Cristi Puiu

“I’m not like other directors who don’t allow their actors to watch. I let them have one scene their way, one for me, then allow them to compare. I don’t choose actors for their appearance or ability in dancing or whatever, but because of their intelligence.”