1. I dream for a living. 2. All of us every single year, we're a different person. I don't think we're the same person all our lives.
3. A lot of the films I've made probably could have worked just as well 50 years ago, and that's just because I have a lot of old-fashion values.
4. I never felt comfortable with myself, because I was never part of the majority. I always felt awkward and shy and on the outside of the momentum of my friends' lives.
5. I am an American Jew and aware of the sensitivities involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
6. I'm not really interested in making money.
8. You know, I don't really do that much looking inside me when I'm working on a project. Whatever I am becomes what that film is. But I change; you change.
9. There is a fine line between censorship and good taste and moral responsibility.
10. I like the smell of film. I just like knowing there's film going through the camera.
11. I don't think any movie or any book or any work of art can solve the stalemate in the Middle East today. But it's certainly worth a try.
12. You have many years ahead of you to create the dreams that we can't even imagine dreaming. You have done more for the collective unconscious of this planet than you will ever know.
13. Why pay a dollar for a bookmark? Why not use the dollar for a bookmark?
14. I'd rather direct than produce. Any day. And twice on Sunday.
16. I've discovered I've got this preoccupation with ordinary people pursued by large forces.
17. Naturally, it is a terrible, despicable crime when, as in Munich, people are taken hostage, people are killed. But probing the motives of those responsible and showing that they are also individuals with families and have their own story does not excuse what they did.
18. I interviewed survivors, I went to Poland, saw the cities and spent time with the people and spoke to the Jews who had come back to Poland after the war and talked about why they had come back.
19. Every time I go to a movie, it's magic, no matter what the movie's about.
20. I want to be the Cecil B. DeMille of science fiction.
21. When war comes, two things happen - profits go way, way up and all perishables go way, way down. There becomes a market for them.
23. The public has an appetite for anything about imagination - anything that is as far away from reality as is creatively possible.
24. When I grow up, I still want to be a director.
25. There is something about killing people at close range that is excruciating. It's bound to try a man's soul.
26. People have forgotten how to tell a story. Stories don't have a middle or an end any more. They usually have a beginning that never stops beginning.
27. I've always been very hopeful which I guess isn't strange coming from me. I don't want to call myself an optimist. I want to say that I've always been full of hope. I've never lost that. I have a lot of hope for this country and for the entire world.
28. All I have to do is pose for a picture and I'm getting married to the person standing next to me.
29. I feel like I've been engaged to the British Empire since 1980 and tonight you have given me the ring (knighthood).
30. I like the smell of film. I just like knowing there's film going through the camera.
32. I hate that people think it's wrong to say you're inspired by Jaws or by Raiders Of The Lost Ark. You're allowed to be.
33. There are three movies that I am exceptionally proud of in my life, and I rarely commit to a list of films that I like, that I've made, ... but these are the three films that I was passionately connected to. The first was "ET," the second "Schindler's List," and third is "Saving Private Ryan".
34. Transformers ... (The movie) is going to be really steeped in tradition, but it makes way for a newer line of toys.
36. I felt, for the first time in my career, that I was directing a stage production more than a motion picture. Part of directing is psychotherapy. You're sitting there with a lot of very talented patients, and you're hoping your movie doesn't blow up in your face in anarchy.
37. This is a courageous year for filmmakers. ... They are saying "If I never make another film", this one says what I think and feel.
39. I don't think this collection of films represent everything. We're not delivering a shared point of view. These movies are all so different from each other. We all look at a movie through a prism of everything our parents and teachers taught us and what our children are telling us. You can't make a movie expecting everyone will have the same reaction. Ten people seeing "Munich" will come out with 10 different points of view. It was always that way, sitting around the Passover table talking about the Middle East.
40. All through my career I've done what I can to discover new talent and give them a start.
41. This opportunity ... allows all of us to reach out directly to open a much wider door.
43. Our one goal is to give the world a taste of peace, friendship and understanding. Through the visual arts, the art of celebration of life, we are dedicated to making this the most emotional opening ceremony ever.
44. Dakota Fanning was on my mind the second I decided to make "War of the Worlds," ... I know no one her age that's better than she is and more intuitive about human nature. She has a very wise old soul - it's like she's been around about seven or eight times.
45. I'd love to build a company that will continue to make movies well beyond me someday. And I'd like to help start something great, even investing in it myself.
46. I expected to see a party animal who was going to reap harvest with all the girls on the set. I found the opposite. Leo is a homebody.
47. I don't think any movie or any book or any work of art can solve the stalemate in the Middle East today. But it's certainly worth a try.
48. We don't demonize our targets. They're individuals. They have families. Although what happened in Munich, I condemn.
49. You have many years ahead of you to create the dreams that we can't even imagine dreaming. You have done more for the collective unconscious of this planet than you will ever know.
51. It would make people more comfortable if I made a film that said all targeted assassination is bad, or good, but the movie doesn't take either of those positions. It refuses to. Many of those pundits on the Left and Right would love the film to land somewhere definite. It puts a real burden on the audience to figure out for themselves how they feel about these issues. There are no easy answers to the most complex story of the last 50 years.
52. (On friend Joan Crawford) She is five feet four, but she looks six feet on the screen. In a two-shot with anyone, even Gable, (Clark Gable), your eyes fix on her. She is imperious, yet with a childlike sparkle. She is haughty, yet tender. She has no great range as an actress, yet within the range she can perform better than any of her contemporaries.
53. Duel was almost a once-in-a-lifetime story. You don't get stories like that all the time.
54. I've learned that we can do just about anything under the sun with computers. So the question becomes, should we? Or, should we remind ourselves, as filmmakers, to be careful and remember that there is nothing more important than how a story is told? If storytelling becomes a byproduct of the digital revolution, then the medium itself is corrupted. On the other hand, if digital tools are simply a way to enhance a conventional story, then in that case, they can make telling that story easier. It's easier and more practical to show 20,000 soldiers in the Crimean War using computers, obviously. So, that's fine. But now, we have technology that can replace actors, or an entire performance in an already existing movie. We could cut out Humphrey Bogart and replace him with Vin Diesel, if somebody wanted. Who would want to? Well, there might be people who would. That's why we have to be careful. Movies reflect our cultural heritage from the period in time in which they were made. Therefore, altering them can destroy that historical perspective. That's disrespectful of history, which is a big issue for me. The situation is like walking a tightrope - we have to move forward, but we have to be careful.
55. I think every film I make that puts characters in jeopardy is me purging my own fears, sadly only to re-engage with them shortly after the release of the picture. I'll never make enough films to purge them all.
56. I interpret my dreams one way and make a movie out of them and people see my movies and make them part of their dreams.
57. The older I get, the more I look at movies as a moving miracle.
58. What kept us going was the thought that David Lean, at 54, had done this every day for a year. David Lean was our criterion for survival. - on filming Raiders of the Lost Ark in Tunisia.
59. I'll probably never win an Oscar, but I'll sure have a lot of fun! I really believe that movies are the great escape!
60. With Star Wars (1977), George (George Lucas) put the butter back into the popcorn.
61. I had dinner with the founder of Yahoo! about seven years ago in Japan. I had my son, who is now sixteen, he was much younger then. I took him to a tea house. We had Geishas, they were serving us tea and I had a little soki and we were talking. And he kept sitting across from me and he kept saying "Yahoo! You have to know what Yahoo!"... and he was going crazy over this thing called Yahoo! And I thought he was actually out of his brain. You know, because he kept talking about Yahoo! and I thought he was trying to say "Yahoo!" And he was, but I had no idea what he was building. And he was so thrilled with what was happening in his world. And this was way beyond my world at that time. And how I look back. I thought: God if I could have been a little bit nicer to that guy, he might have called me up and offered me a chance to invest early. (2002).
62. I always like to think of the audience when I am directing. Because I am the audience.
62. I always like to think of the audience when I am directing. Because I am the audience.
63. (When asked about being conflicted whether to make more artistic films, or more commercial films): All the time, but when you have a story that is very commercial and simple, you have to find the art. You have to take the other elements of the film and make them as good as possible, and doing that will uplift the film.
64. As long as there's been Transformers, I've been one of the biggest fans. And I always thought that somewhere in this genius concept, there was a movie.
65. (on the film Poltergeist (1982)): Poltergeist is the darker side of my nature, it's me when I was scaring my younger sisters half to death. In Poltergeist, I wanted to terrify and I also wanted to amuse - I tried to mix the laughs and screams together.
66. I have made almost as many films in England as I have in America. I will come back to England again and again.
67. I've taken the time to familiarize myself with the impressive field of Democratic candidates and am convinced that Hillary Clinton is the most qualified candidate to lead us from her first day in the White House. Hillary is a strong leader and is respected the world over. As president, she will bring America back together, rebuild our prestige abroad and ensure our protection here at home.
68. (on winning the Best Director Oscar for Saving Private Ryan (1998)): Am I allowed to say I really wanted this?
69. The person I enjoy working for more than anyone else is George Lucas. He's the best boss I ever had because he's the most talented boss I ever had.
70. Times have changed. It's like when the first 747 landed at Los Angeles international airport: everybody thought flying through the sky was the most greatest marvel they had ever seen - floating through the air, seemingly in slow motion. Today we never even look at 747s. They're a dime a dozen and it's that way with the blockbuster. If there was one blockbuster every three years, it meant a lot more than when you have a blockbuster every three weeks. It's the job of each of these studios to market these movies as the must-see movie of the year, so they go after blockbuster status by creating a grand illusion. Sometimes they've got a real engine behind that grand illusion, meaning the movie is damned good and the audience will say they got their money's worth. Other times, the audience comes on the promise of seeing something they've never ever seen before and it becomes just another sci-fi action yarn and they feel disappointed.
71. If I weren't a director, I would want to be a film composer.
72. After a scary movie about the world almost ending, we can walk into the sunlight and say, "Wow, everything's still here. I'm OK!" We like to tease ourselves. Human beings have a need to get close to the edge and, when filmmakers or writers can take them to the edge, it feels like a dream where you're falling, but you wake up just before you hit the ground.
73. What I'm saying is that I believe in showmanship.
71. If I weren't a director, I would want to be a film composer.
72. After a scary movie about the world almost ending, we can walk into the sunlight and say, "Wow, everything's still here. I'm OK!" We like to tease ourselves. Human beings have a need to get close to the edge and, when filmmakers or writers can take them to the edge, it feels like a dream where you're falling, but you wake up just before you hit the ground.
73. What I'm saying is that I believe in showmanship.
74. I think that the Internet is going to effect the most profound change on the entertainment industries combined. And we're all gonna be tuning into the most popular Internet show in the world, which will be coming from some place in Des Moines. We're all gonna lose our jobs. We're all gonna be on the Internet trying to find an audience.
75. Once a month the sky falls on my head, I come to and I see another movie I want to make.
76. During an interview with Roger Ebert regarding his film Munich (2005) and the response from Jewish critics that claim it depicts Israeli and Palestinian causes as morally equivalent: Frankly, I think that's a stupid charge. The people who attack the movie based on "moral equivalence" are some of the same people who say diplomacy itself is an exercise in "moral equivalence" and that war is the only answer. That the only way to fight terrorism is to dehumanize the terrorists by asking no questions about who they are and where they come from. What I believe is, every act of terrorism requires a strong response, but we must also pay attention to the causes. That's why we have brains and the power to think passionately. Understanding does not require approval. Understanding is not the same as inaction. Understanding is a very muscular act. If I'm endorsing understanding and being attacked for that, then I am almost flattered.
77. I'm as guilty as anyone, because I helped to herald the digital era with Jurassic Park (1993)). But the danger is that it can be abused to the point where nothing is eye-popping any more. The difference between making Jaws (1975) 31 years ago and War of the Worlds (2005) is that today, anything I can imagine, I can realize on film. Then, when my mechanical shark was being repaired and I had to shoot something, I had to make the water scary. I relied on the audience's imagination, aided by where I put the camera. Today, it would be a digital shark. It would cost a hell of a lot more, but never break down. As a result, I probably would have used it four times as much, which would have made the film four times less scary. Jaws is scary because of what you don't see, not because of what you do. We need to bring the audience back into partnership with storytelling.
78. I don't work weekends. Weekends are for my kids. And I have dinner at home every night when I'm not physically directing a movie - I get home by six. I put the kids to bed and tell them stories and take them to school the next morning. I work basically from 9.30 to 5.30 and I'm strict about that.
79. I don't drink coffee. I've never had a cup of coffee in my entire life. That's something you probably don't know about me. I've hated the taste since I was a kid.
80. All those horrible, traumatic years I spent as a kid became what I draw from creatively today.
81. Godzilla (Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956)) was the most masterful of all dinosaur movies because it made you believe it was really happening.
78. I don't work weekends. Weekends are for my kids. And I have dinner at home every night when I'm not physically directing a movie - I get home by six. I put the kids to bed and tell them stories and take them to school the next morning. I work basically from 9.30 to 5.30 and I'm strict about that.
79. I don't drink coffee. I've never had a cup of coffee in my entire life. That's something you probably don't know about me. I've hated the taste since I was a kid.
80. All those horrible, traumatic years I spent as a kid became what I draw from creatively today.
81. Godzilla (Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956)) was the most masterful of all dinosaur movies because it made you believe it was really happening.
82. Being a movie-maker means you get to live many, many lifetimes. It's the same reason audiences go to movies, I think. When my daughter Sasha (Sasha Spielberg) was 5 years old, we would be watching something on TV and she'd point to a character on screen and say, "Daddy, that's me." Ten minutes later a new character would come on screen and she'd say, "No, Daddy. That's me." Throughout the movie she would pick different people to become. I think that's what we all do. We just don't say it as sweetly.
83. Before I go off and direct a movie I always look at 4 films. They tend to be: "Seven Samurai" (Shichinin no samurai (1954)); Lawrence of Arabia (1962); It's a Wonderful Life (1946) and The Searchers (1956).
84. At E3 games convention about partnership with EA: I am a gamer myself, and I really wanted to create a video game that I could play with my kids.
85. The most expensive habit in the world is celluloid, not heroin, and I need a fix every few years.
83. Before I go off and direct a movie I always look at 4 films. They tend to be: "Seven Samurai" (Shichinin no samurai (1954)); Lawrence of Arabia (1962); It's a Wonderful Life (1946) and The Searchers (1956).
84. At E3 games convention about partnership with EA: I am a gamer myself, and I really wanted to create a video game that I could play with my kids.
85. The most expensive habit in the world is celluloid, not heroin, and I need a fix every few years.
86. The love we do not show here on Earth is the only thing that hurts us in the after-life.
87. I don't dream at night, I dream at day, I dream all day.
88. Only a generation of readers will span a generation of writers.
89. My first reaction, every time I delve into an episode of history that I don’t know very much about, is anger that my teachers never taught me about it.
90. The best time of my life has been the three instances where I have been there for the birth of my children. That is, nothing (else) has ever come close.
What do you think of Steven Spielberg's quotes?
