James Cameron (director) Quotes

28 Sourced Quotes

My mother was a housewife but she was also an artist. My father was an electrical engineer.

James Cameron
It was long ago in my life as a simple reporter that I decided that facts must never get in the way of truth.

James Cameron
If it was up to the studio, everything would be shot with a camcorder.

James Cameron
I'm certainly not a fan of conversion when you could shoot the movie in 3-D.

James Cameron
I don't feel that I'm making movies for iPhones. If someone wants to watch movie on an iPhone, I'm not going to stop them, especially if they're paying for it, but I don't recommend it. I think it's dumb, when you have characters that are so small in the frame that they're not visible. I'm trying to make an epic.

James Cameron
It took me a long time to realize that you have to have a bit of an interlanguage with actors. You have to give them something that they can act with.

James Cameron
A director's job is to make something happen and it doesn't happen by itself. So you wheedle, you cajole, you flatter people, you tell them what needs to be done. And if you don't bring a passion and an intensity to it, you shouldn't be doing it.

James Cameron
I always do makeup touch-ups myself, especially for blood, wounds, and dirt. It saves so much time.

James Cameron
That worst evil of long dictatorships: the loss of all political experience.

James Cameron
The films that influenced me were so disparate that there's almost no pattern.

James Cameron
I dreamed I was a soldier who could bring peace. Sooner or later, though, you always have to wake up.

James Cameron
Imagination is a force that can actually manifest a reality. … Don't put limitations on yourself. Other people will do that for you. Don't do that to yourself. Don't bet against yourself. And take risk. NASA has this phrase that they like, "Failure is not an option." But failure has to be an option. In art and exploration, failure has to be an option. Because it is a leap of faith. And no important endeavour that required innovation was done without risk. You have to be willing to take those risks. … In whatever you are doing, failure is an option. But fear is not.

James Cameron
Sometimes your whole life boils down to one insane move.

James Cameron
I actually started as a model builder and quickly progressed into production design, which made sense because I could draw and paint. But I kept watching that guy over there who was moving the actors around and setting up the shots.

James Cameron
I certainly didn't think of myself as gifted. The standards for being gifted in my environment were if you were good in Little League or if you were good in football.

James Cameron
The magic doesn't come from within the director's mind, it comes from within the hearts of the actors.

James Cameron
A woman's heart is a deep ocean of secrets. But now you know there was a man named Jack Dawson, and that he saved me in every way that a person can be saved. I don't even have a picture of him. He exists now only in my memory.

James Cameron
Pick up a camera. Shoot something. No matter how small, no matter how cheesy, no matter whether your friends and your sister star in it. Put your name on it as director. Now you're a director. Everything after that you're just negotiating your budget and your fee.

James Cameron
I love short trips to New York; to me it is the finest three-day town on earth.

James Cameron
I had pictured myself as a filmmaker but I had never pictured myself as a director if that makes any sense at all.

James Cameron
There are many talented people who haven't fulfilled their dreams because they over thought it, or they were too cautious, and were unwilling to make the leap of faith.

James Cameron
Everything is backwards now, like out there is the the real world and this is the dream.

James Cameron
If you wait until the right time to have a child you'll die childless, and I think film making is very much the same thing. You just have to take the plunge and just start shooting something even if it's bad.

James Cameron
This is how it's done. When people are sitting on shit that you want, you make 'em your enemy. Then you justify taking it.

James Cameron
I got everything I need right here with me. I got air in my lungs, a few blank sheets of paper. I mean, I love waking up in the morning not knowing what's gonna happen or, who I'm gonna meet, where I'm gonna wind up. Just the other night I was sleeping under a bridge and now here I am on the grandest ship in the world having champagne with you fine people. I figure life's a gift and I don't intend on wasting it. You don't know what hand you're gonna get dealt next. You learn to take life as it comes at you... to make each day count.

James Cameron
The film industry is about saying 'no' to people, and inherently you cannot take 'no' for an answer.

James Cameron
I do an awful lot of scuba diving. I love to be on the ocean, under the ocean. I live next to the ocean.

James Cameron
I was always fascinated by engineering. Maybe it was an attempt maybe to get my father's respect or interest, or maybe it was just a genetic love of technology, but I was always trying to build things.

James Cameron