Lina Wertmuller Quotes

#1. When I was young, I ran to see Astaire and Rogers, Huston, Lubitsch - they were formative for me. I also read 'Flash Gordon' when I was 6, but if I were still reading it when I was 16, I'd have been an imbecile.

Lina Wertmuller

#2. I am a director. I'm the one who can order men around.

Lina Wertmuller

#3. I love life. I love my friends. I love to eat. Too many things, I love. I am very much an anti-historical character. I am attracted to happy people. Happy people with very grave problems.

Lina Wertmuller

#4. For years, the feminists thought of me as an army sergeant. I was too macho for them.

Lina Wertmuller

#5. When I was a girl, we all wanted to have fun. That's all we thought about. It didn't occur to us to get married and have babies.

Lina Wertmuller

#6. I've always been an angel. Sometimes I transform into a witch only because the filmmaking demands it.

Lina Wertmuller

#7. I adore the work of Lucas and Spielberg. I'm certainly not trying to minimize their talents, but I'd love to see what they could do when they aren't leading us from reality.

Lina Wertmuller

#8. My first customer is myself. When I tell a story I like, I can sleep easy. I'm sorry when audiences don't like it, but I have no choice.

Lina Wertmuller

#9. When you can use dirty words in every situation with everyone, that's a real big liberation.

Lina Wertmuller

#10. Ah, in work, love and the movies, everything is a fight.

Lina Wertmuller

#11. To love is to be engaged is to work is to be interested is to create.

Lina Wertmuller

#12. I don't think suicide is so terrible. Some rainy winter Sundays when there's a little boredom, you should always carry a gun. Not to shoot yourself, but to know exactly that you're always making a choice.

Lina Wertmuller

#13. Prizes are like butterflies, colorful butterflies that fly away. I don't believe in prizes much.

Lina Wertmuller

#14. Film is my big problem. I am involved too much. I love too much. I've been trying to resolve it for 35 years now, but for now, I have to keep making them.

Lina Wertmuller

#15. Some feminists have this party-line attitude, and they can be very extremist. The most enlightened characters in my film are women.

Lina Wertmuller

#16. I know they call me a crazy lady, but I'm only interested in making movies and having people see them.

Lina Wertmuller

#17. The wonderful thing about films is how they can be understood by so many different people on so many different levels.

Lina Wertmuller