Kenji Mizoguchi

“You must put the odor of the human body into images...describe for me the implacable, the egoistic, the sensual, the cruel...there are nothing but disgusting people in this world.”

Jean Renoir

“A director makes only one movie in his life. Then he breaks it into pieces and makes it again.”

Andrei Tarkovsky

“Juxtaposing a person with an environment that is boundless, collating him with a countless number of people passing by close to him and far away, relating a person to the whole world, that is the meaning of cinema.”

Satyajit Ray

“What is attempted in these films is of course a synthesis. But it can be seen by someone who has his feet in both cultures. Someone who will bring to bear on the films involvement and detachment in equal measure.”

Éric Rohmer

“I do not say, I show. I show people who move and speak.”

Alfred Hitchcock

“For me, the cinema is not a slice of life, but a piece of cake.”

Manoel de Oliveira

“Standing still is to die; that is the point. The worst thing would be to do nothing, to be scared of acting. It would be a mistake to stand still, to not try something.”

Theodoros Angelopoulos

“Prizes are prizes, but I still need to tell that story. And being simple is the hardest thing.”

Otar Iosseliani

“The thing we all have in common is that we’re always thinking about holidays.”

Gaston Kaboré

“We need local productions rooted in the true realities of people, which are immediately accessible to people and which address their problems but also their dreams.”

Alexandre Promio

Sadao Yamanaka

Mani Kaul

“I made films because I wanted to make films. I didn’t do it with the intention of giving the audience a message. The act of making a film is a social act.”

Mircea Veroiu

Jorge Sanjinés

“We live a true social, collective insurrection. A historical phenomenon without precedent in the world, and which thus has a significant importance.”

Lester James Peries

“I feel that the cinema has done much more for me than I have done for the Sri Lankan cinema. It played a role in bringing me back home and to my roots, and helped me get closer to the Sri Lankan people. I owe the cinema a lot. Sometimes I wonder whether I`ve been specially favoured.”

Shôhei Imamura

“I show true things using fictional techniques but maintaining truthfulness — that's where my approach differs from Ozu. He wanted to make film more aesthetic. I want to make it more real. He aspired toward a cinematic nirvana. When I was his assistant, I was very opposed to him, but now, whilst still not liking his films, I'm much more tolerant. As for me, I'd like to destroy this premise that cinema is fiction.”

Đặng Nhật Minh

“I have no regrets at all about being a film director as it is destiny. But if I could choose again, I would rather be a doctor and follow in my father’s footsteps.”

Marta Rodríguez

“Our cinema should be political, and as beautiful as possible.”

John Pilger

“It is not enough for journalists to see themselves as mere messengers without understanding the hidden agendas of the message and the myths that surround it.”