King Hu

“I don't like James Bond. They made him a super hero, but he is just an agent, a human being. In my movies, secret agents are more realistic, I didn't want to portray them in the most glowing colours. ”

Yasuharu Hasebe

Samuel Fuller

“Movement should be a counter, whether in action scenes or dialogue or whatever. It counters where your eye is going. This style thing, for me it's all fitted to the action, to the script, to the characters.”

Chang Cheh

“I am wishing for a new fusion of art forms, not going back to the old way -- it's this type of thinking. If we want to go back to the old way, there really isn't much purpose for doing so. This is different from rejecting the artistic value of Peking Opera. The artistic value of Peking opera is in the essence of itself. Taking just a little of Peking opera and putting it in a new form is different from both schools that it originates from.”

William A. Wellman

“People have asked me a million times, "Why don't you like your own pictures?" I don't know why. I do know that every time I look at one of them, I realize I could have done it better.”

Raoul Walsh

“There is probably no moment in picturemaking that is more acutely essential to a director’s success than the instant of his choice of story material. For the director, that is the moment of conception.”

Enzo G. Castellari

“My target as a director is to do a movie for the spectator and I am the first spectator for my movie, so I am doing the movie for myself as a spectator.”

Toshio Masuda

Robert Rodriguez

“Don't give me any money, don't give me any people, but give freedom, and I'll give you a movie that looks gigantic. ”

Quentin Tarantino

“I don't believe in elitism. I don't think the audience is this dumb person lower than me. I am the audience.”

Ram Gopal Varma

Jules Dassin

“If there is anything I want to be remembered for, it is for fulfilling Melina's dream [the return of the Elgin Marbles to Greece].”

John Sturges

Anthony Mann

"Primarily known for his Westerns, Mann portrayed a world of violence against some of the most striking natural vistas in cinema history. His crime films are gritty and real, and all his work reflects an exploration of the complex psychology of the human soul." —William R. Meyer (The Film Buff's Catalog, 1978)

Jean-Pierre Melville

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

Ringo Lam

[On Jean-Claude Van Damme]: “He couldn’t act for shit.”

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.”

Johnnie To

“Hollywood can't do this. But we can: we can change things whenever we want.”

Takeshi Kitano

“Sword fighting in film is not about how good the fighter is, but how good the actor receiving the blows is.”

Kinji Fukasaku

“Known primarily in the West for directing such features as Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) and the controversial Battle Royale (2000), maverick Japanese director Kinji Fukasaku established himself early on with a series of Toei Studio yakuza movies.”