Director Quotes

I have worked with another first-time director who was not that open, and it was probably one of the worst experiences I ever had, so my antennas are really out.

I don't feel the need to direct. I tried to get other people to direct Dances, but they wouldn't do it. They all thought it was too long. One director wanted to cut the Civil War sequence. Another thought the white woman was very cliched.

The director took my face in his hands and asked me to show him my teeth, as with a horse. This happened on a Wednesday, and by the following Monday I was shooting.

Actors are accustomed to doing exactly what the director or writer requests us to do, and rarely get involved in that part of the process.

It's natural for any actor that segues into directing to be an actor's director. You know how to relate to the actors.

So when I got the chance to do my first talk show, 50 years ago last month, I never had any writers. There was no budget - it was just me and the camera and my friend who was the director. I talked about what I'd done that week.

When I grow up, I still want to be a director.

After all, at end of the day, when you're breathing your last, it's not your producer, director, or cast mates by your bedside; it's your children. Keep that in mind.

I'm not aware that I was consciously influenced by any director, though these things often happen unnoticed, submerged in the unconscious.

Film is the manipulative medium par excellence. When you think back on the history of film and the 20th century, you see the propaganda that's been made. So there are moral demands on the director to treat the spectators as seriously as he or she takes himself and not to see them merely as victims that can be manipulated to whatever ends they have.

You have a right to your opinion about the work that you're doing. An artist is as equally important as the director. If you believe that, you can work in any circumstances.

How people are around a director, it really does affect everything, every detail of the life of the movie.

I got my dailies every day, although I couldn't always look at them because I was usually preparing for the next day's shoot, both as an actress and as the director.

I think of myself as a problem-solver. I want to go in and help the director and the writer to get the best they can out of the text they're working with.

For a director and a producer to be named on the writing credits is practically unheard of.

Burt Lancaster was largely responsible for me becoming a director.

What happens is things come to you - director, script - and if you respond to it, it's because it's tapping into some part of what's inside you, and different roles tap into different parts.

But things such as 'Harry Potter', all I can do is shape my character, seek the director's approval on that, and basically take it from there. Professor Flitwick in 'Harry Potter', I kind of defined how I saw him from reading the book, and luckily that matched up with the director's vision.

Now I'm kind of established as a director, I much prefer directing to writing.

I don't come in with any preconceived ideas, and although I will have done some preparation, I can go which way the director wants.

As a director, you try to find what is creative.

A director in Hollywood in my time couldn't do what he wanted to do.

It became very clear to the director that it would be foolish not to use our friendship. I had tried to talk to him about it because all the relationships in the film are so, not negative, but antagonistic. There's not a lot of love going around.

For any director with a little lucidity, masterpieces are films that come to you by accident.

Any time you talk about the look of the film, it's not just the director and the director of photography. You have to include the costume designer and the production designer.

I mean, this whole digital revolution is really eroding the director's importance on a movie because, number one, just from a practical standpoint, with floppy disks and the ability to put all of the film onto a disk, more people have access to the movie.

The first work of the director is to set a mood so that the actor's work can take place, so that the actor can create. And in order to do that, you have to communicate, communicate with the actors. And direction is about communication on all levels.

There was always a part of me that wanted to be an old-time director. But I couldn't do that. I'm not a pro.

I feel fine, I don't care who the director is. All you have to do is know what your doing - all of us - everybody in the business - that's all you ask anyone - you know your job, I know mine, let's go do it.

As a director, I also get to sit and watch actors and learn from them in a way that I don't get to do when I'm just acting.