quotes by Film Director Quotes

“Just trust your instincts. There's an old saying in golf, you've studied the swing many times, and you practice and practice, but when you stand over the ball, you just have to trust your swing. And you trust it. And if you don't trust it, you'll ruin it; your brain will take over.”

“We don't even know who's in the Academy.”

“The only black battalion on Iwo Jima was a small munitions supply unit that came to the beach.”

“Naturally, everybody has certain things they wish they hadn't done in life. They wish they hadn't kicked their dog when they were ten or something.”

“What Trump is onto is, he's just saying what's on his mind. And sometimes it's not so good. And sometimes it's... I mean, I can understand where he's coming from, but I don't always agree with it.”

“I don't like to see a president who is just out campaigning all year long or for the last four years. I'd like to see somebody who's going in the office. In fact, I'd like to not see them because that way you'd be sure that they'd be working.”

“I keep working because I learn something new all the time.”

“What happened is I was going to college in 1950. L. A. City College. A guy I knew was going to an acting class on Thursday nights. He started telling me about all the good-lookin' chicks and said, "Why don't you go with me?" So I probably had some motivation beyond thoughts of being an actor. And sure enough, he was right. There were a lot of girls and not many guys. I said, "Yeah, they need me here." I wound up at Universal as a contract player.”

“A lot of people are realizing they had the wool pulled over their eyes by Obama.”

“I was an Eisenhower Republican when I started out at 21 because he promised to get us out of the Korean War.”

“Comedy isn't necessarily all dialogue. Think of Buster Keaton: the poker face and all this chaos going on all around him. Sometimes it's a question of timing, of the proper rhythm.”

“Sometimes if you want to see a change for the better, you have to take things into your own hands.”

“There has to be something in every role that interests you.”

“You change as the years go by. The more knowledge you get, the more things change in your life and circumstances change.”

“Acting is an animal thing, not an intellectual thing.”

“The only reason I ever thought about retiring from the front part of the camera as opposed to the back is sometimes you think, "How many roles are there for someone my age?"”

“It would be great to be 105 and still making films.”

“At some point in your fife, your tolerance level goes down and you realize that, with someone much younger, there's nothing really to talk about. And I think we're at a point now where a lot of older women take better care of themselves, compared to the 1940s and '50s when women were programmed to figure it's all over after 30.”

“I found out that a lot of my liberal friends weren't liberal because they weren't liberal about approaching anybody else's ideas, or at least standing for it. They started getting really animalistic about, "I can't even associate with this guy. He's stupid. He's an idiot."”

“I guess maybe when you get past 70, other people start asking you how you feel.”

“My mother always told me it wasn't polite to ask what people make.”

“I believe in my gut. Most people intellectualize their instincts away, but when you feel something, you have to go for it. A Fistful of Dollars was a great instinct for me, because here I was, a guy who's doing Rawhide.”

“It's a very confusing era that we're in.”

“If you're doing a biography, you try to stay as accurate as possible to reality. But you really don't know what was going on in the person's mind. You just know what was going on in the minds of people around him.”

“I had always planned when I started directing in 1970 that after a few years I'd get tired of looking at myself on the screen and say: "Hey, let's not do that any more." But then every once in a while something pops up. I'm not saying it won't happen again but probably the odds get less as you set yourself for roles that fit your age group.”

“At certain points if your life, you like doing more. I'm not sure what causes it or for what reasons; you just do it.”

“Things always look different from higher up.”

“Dyin' ain't much of a living, boy.”

“Historically, actors have been made very famous for roles that were something that was far - - Richard Widmark comes to mind (playing Tommy Udo in "Kiss of Death") or something like that, where you do some famous role and everybody imitates you for the rest of your life. But obviously it's much more fun to play something you're not than it is to play something you are.”

“A lot of dumb pictures have made a lot of money, but that doesn't mean they're going to be anything cinema students will revel over in the future.”

“I'm always trying to tackle subjects that tax me and make me think. That's the key to staying young at heart. The brain has to be exercised the same as the rest of the body.”

“Man becomes his most creative during war.”

“I'm suffering from oxygen deprivation. It's overwhelming watching your career go by.”

“Everybody accuses me of moving fast when I direct a picture. I don't move fast, but I just keep moving.”

“Other than obvious errors like forgetting a line, often I can't see any difference between take one and take 20.”

“There's a lot of great movies that have won the Academy Award, and a lot of great movies that haven't. You just do the best you can.”

“You see, in this world, there's two kinds of people, my friend - those with loaded guns, and those who dig. You dig.”

“If you get a certain amount of notoriety for doing something, and you can stick to that type of project for the rest of your life and make a decent living, I think you still have a responsibility to stretch. Flexibility is what keeps you alive.”

“I would like to be interpreted as a liberal libertarian, like leave everybody alone and let them do their own thing.”

“I just don't like killing creatures.”

“I always revered people that I thought had an idea and proceeded through with it. I guess I've been that way since the day I called my father and told him I was going to study acting and maybe try to see if I could do well with that, and he told me: "Don't do that. You don't want to do that, that's just dream stuff. Get a legitimate job and move forward."”

“Abuse of power isn't limited to 'bad guys' in other nations. It happens in our own country. Those in power get jaded, deluded, and seduced by power itself. I have a reverence for individuality. I've always considered myself too individualistic to be either right-wing or left-wing. I like the libertarian view, which is to leave everyone alone. People should be able to be what they want to be and do what they want - as long as they're not harming other people. I am a libertarian.”

“If somebody's dumb enough to ask me to go to a political convention and say something, they're going to have to take what they get.”

“You know when you're young and you see a play in high school, and the guys all have gray in their hair and they're trying to be old men and they have no idea what that's like? It's just that stupid the other way around.”

“They've got this crazy actor who's 82 years old up there in a suit. I was a mayor, and they're probably thinking I know how to give a speech, but even when I was mayor I never gave speeches. I gave talks.”

“I've had no problem harnessing anger.”

“Everybody's got a right to be a sucker ... once.”

“My dad was fiscally conservative, and I was influenced by that. He didn't believe in spending more than you had because it gets you into trouble.”

“Men must know their limitations.”

“Being comfortable is over-rated.”