American Director Quotes

Orson Welles

Martin Scorsese

Steven Spielberg

Clint Eastwood

Quentin Tarantino

Jack Nicholson

Francis Ford Coppola

Almost all serious stories in the world are stories of failure with a death in it. But there is more lost paradise in them than defeat.

I'm not videotaping my life, but in a way I am trying to put certain things about myself on canvas.

Martin Scorsese

Lee's great gifts are teaching and inspirational guidance, not administration and management.

Cheryl Crawford

If you expect nothing, you can never be disappointed. Apart from a few starry-eyed poets or monks living on a mountaintop somewhere, however, we all have expectations. We not only have them, we need them. They fuel our dreams, our hopes, and our lives like some super-caffeinated energy drink.

"Republic" is one of those words that makes me tight in the throat. Same tightness a man gets when his baby makes his first step, or his boy first shaves, makes his first sound like a man. Some words can give you a feeling that makes your heart warm. "Republic" is one of those words.

James Edward Grant

His heritage, then, had been his indefatigable will; his firm determination to make his way; his great desire to make good.

In 2004, I joined my father, John Kerry, on the trail in his bid for the United States presidency.

Alexandra Kerry

Actors, who should pride themselves on their singularity, are forever trying to be someone else. It isn't necessary for you, the actor, to like yourself— self-love isn't easy to come by for most of us— but you must learn to trust who you are. There is no one else like you.

Michael Shurtleff

There are three stages of an actor's career. Young, old, and "You look good".

America faces grave threats both here and abroad, and the FBI, in concert with its federal, state, and local partners continues to work steadfastly to prevent and hold accountable those responsible for these threats.

Christopher A. Wray

The Hebrew Bible, as a document, displays an astonishing lack of textual self-consciousness. It alleges to know what God thinks, but it does not know itself. It is not aware that it is called the Hebrew Bible. … Jews and Christians have venerated an unself-conscious artifact, one whose embarrassing gaps in self-knowledge have always had to be filled in by later interpreters.

Jacques Berlinerblau

No Statue of Liberty ever greeted our arrival in this country...we did not, in fact, come to the United States at all. The United States came to us.

And there is something great about knowing that my only job is to be as happy as I can be about my life, and feel as good as I can about myself, and to lead as full and eventful a life as I can, so that it doesn't ever feel like I'm just waiting around for some guy to ask me out. And most importantly, it's good for us all to remember that we don't need to scheme and plot and beg to get someone to ask us out. We're fantastic.

She painted what she painted because she had to, because she was passionate about it. She didn't care at all if people bought her paintings. As she said, she painted her reality.
I find that I make as an artist the kind of choices that I have to be impassioned about. I'm not going to spend two years on a film or four years on an opera if I don't feel like I can put my own self into it. That doesn't mean it has to be about myself. That's a difference.
Frida painted her own reality, her life. I'm a director and I paint many other people... Other people's realities. But I do have to invest in it.

I think of the classical world as a cancer patient or an AIDS patient. You know you have a limited life span. The question you now might want to ask is what would be the most important things to do now with your remaining years. I would like to think that that type of prioritizing could happen with museums, symphony orchestras, opera companies. Things really are urgent right now, and what we're doing somehow has to matter, has to make a contribution.

We want to make things. We want to make things with our hands. We crave it. It sparks something in us, feeds our urge to create. That's why were here.
The future will be what we choose to build. We choose to build what we believe in. It's always been that way. A small group of people choose to believe in something, and then they make it so. In that order. They choose to believe in something, and then they make it so. That's the power of makers — the power to choose a new future, by believing, and making.

Regina E. Dugan

The world is made for people who aren't cursed with self-awareness.

Man, I ain't poor. Look, I give away stuff to the Salvation Army. You can't give nothing away to Salvation Army if you poor.

Charles Burnett (director)

Time marches on and eventually you realize it is marching across your face.

Robert Harling (writer)

Since science is fashionable today, it allows its fraternity to propose cloddish monstrosities as a solution to man's problems in many fields. Fashion rules and, anyway, who but the experts can even dare to speak up?

Frank Schaeffer

Book-to-screen adaptations must always strive for two things: First, you must find a way to tell the broad story of the original plot; second, you must somehow reflect the spirit and texture of the novel—that is, you must transform a lot of words into a few pictures.

Tommy Lee Wallace

More souls become casualties of war than physical bodies. War is a soul-shattering experience for the innocent.

The history of each and every territory is written in the blood of those who died trying to fulfill the aspirations of their ambitious leaders.

I learned long ago to accept the fact that not everything I create will see the light of day.

Unlike other people, our reviewers are powerful because they believe in nothing.