Top 100 Director Quotes
#1. I grew up the son of a director and grew up on sets myself, so I was the kid getting dragged around from this set to that set and I loved it. There's something about it which is really interesting.
Dean Cain
#2. I really want my career to be as an actor-writer-director-producer, you know? I don't know what will be stronger than the other.
Danny Strong
#3. I'm very old-school. I like a director to direct me. I like to be the actor.
Melissa Leo
#4. Most actors don't really have a director's sensibility. They have an actor's sensibility.
Jodie Foster
#5. The acting director of the Secret Service, Joseph Clancy, said they may make the fence around the White House taller because of the recent security failures. When asked if he had any other ideas, he said, 'Uh, make the sidewalk lower?'
Jimmy Fallon
#6. I am very clear that when I work with a director what he or she says is the last word.
Shah Rukh Khan
#7. My very first news director said to me that it's better to be hated than to have viewers be neutral.
Julie Chen
#8. My strangest auditioning experience was when I was reading for a TV show, and right when I started the audition, the casting director left the room and yelled at me from the hallway to keep reading.
Danny Strong
#9. [H]aving the career of the beloved CIA Director and the commanding general in Afghanistan instantly destroyed due to highly invasive and unwarranted electronic surveillance is almost enough to make one believe not only that there is a god, but that he is an ardent civil libertarian.
Glenn Greenwald
#10. Become the director, producer, choreographer of your own story
Deepak Chopra
#11. Why would people have confidence in a female director when there are so few?
Jennifer Lawrence
#12. When I couldn't speak English, I loved silent films circa 1914-1929, Abel Gance being my favorite director.
Kola Boof
#13. I am blessed to live and work in [France,] a country where women filmmakers are by and large not unfairly treated. So I wouldn't have much to contribute regarding issues faced as a female director.
Anne Fontaine
#14. When a filmmaker does not make films, it is as if he is jailed. Even when he is freed from the small jail, he finds himself wandering in a larger jail. The main question is: why should it be a crime to make a movie? A finished film, well, it can get banned but not the director.
Jafar Panahi
#15. The 9/11 commission recommended the appointment of a national intelligence director with budgetary authority to better coordinate the work of the intelligence community and resolve differences.
Ronald Kessler
#16. I loved putting on stories as plays when I was just six. I was the director, the actress and the set designer; I cast my girlfriends in parts, and I suggested to the local kindergarten teachers that we do free performances for the children.
Mili Avital
#17. My biggest role as director on the film is keeping a sense of the overview - how to cast the movie and shoot it in such a way that it will cut together. And how to design the style and tone.
Jay Roach
#18. I think with the smaller-scale projects, the burden for success falls more squarely on the shoulders of the actors and the director and the script.
Alexis Denisof
#19. Program was initiated by the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA). IARPA is run by the US Director of National Intelligence. The
Anonymous
#20. He was arguably the best-qualified FBI director since J. Edgar Hoover; he thought Clinton was the most talented politician since Richard Nixon. That made their mutual contempt all the more tragic. It undermined the FBI and ultimately damaged the United States.
Tim Weiner
#21. Each director is different. Clint Eastwood and Chris Nolan are completely different, and I need to adjust to the story and character and the director and just my duty as an actor.
Ken Watanabe
#22. If you are at odds with the director, neither one of you is going to get anywhere. You really do have to be able to make both of you happy.
Julianne Moore
#23. I don't know a single collector or museum director who says: 'Oh, he's on a list, so I think I'll buy something of his.' The people who buy my art put a little more thought into it than that.
Olafur Eliasson
#24. When you are shooting a movie, you have to collaborate with many, many, many people. First of all, the director with all his own ideas and I can only just help him with that. I cannot change his idea.
Vilmos Zsigmond
#25. I have gone to Albany constantly in my capacity as budget director, because I don't think the way the transit authority works with the City of New York is very appropriate.
Joseph J. Lhota
#26. I can't act. I simply must be myself, do the things that seem natural to me. When I get with a director who wants me to act, I'll be lost.
George Raft
#27. It's pretty damning. That's Hillary Clinton juxtaposed against the FBI Director Comey yesterday, clearly illustrating she lied.
Rush Limbaugh
#28. I got an internship with the casting director of The Girl Next Door. I would hold the clipboard and help them in their casting sessions and get them lunch.
Olivia Wilde
#29. Every time I work with a European director, I find they hire the person that captures the spirit of the role. Americans tend to hire the best face. The person that looks more like the role, whether they can perform the role or not is a bonus.
Elizabeth Pena
#30. Getting movies made is not as difficult as people think. Making movies is easy. You get a script, you get a director, you raise the money, you make the movie.
Stephen Baldwin
#31. It depends who the director is you know, I mean Ken Loach for instance. I've done up to 32 takes with him.
Robert Carlyle
#32. I'm a pretty hands-off director. I let people try things, and if it gets over-jokey, then I'll try and rein it in a little bit.
Joe Swanberg
#33. You must become the producer, director and actor in the unfolding story of your life.
Wayne W. Dyer
#34. Every story is different, every movie is different, every director is different.
Marion Cotillard
#35. I don't care about names attached to the script. That doesn't matter to me. All things being equal, I would like to work with a good script with a good director, and the part I play is of less important than those two factors.
Alan Arkin
#36. I don't believe in director's cuts where you make things longer. The coolest thing was when the Coen brothers did a director's cut of 'Blood Simple,' and they made it shorter.
Jason Reitman
#37. Brad Pitt is great fun. He jokes around all the time and has a real quality about him. On set the director called me over and said, 'Jase, just watch him. Watch him move.' Instead of walking, Brad literally glides. It's incredible.
Jason Flemyng
#38. You just have to say over and over again: 'I am a director.' Nobody gives it to you. Nobody anoints you.
Jill Soloway
#39. When I got the script for Thelma & Louise, when I met with the director, Ridley Scott, I said, "I don't want to do a revenge film. I'm not interested in doing that moment in the script after they shoot the truck, where it says they jump up and down and they're real happy about it".
Susan Sarandon
#40. My strongest quality as an actor is taking direction. I will give my performance as a template and if the director gives any instruction, I take that information, process it and morph it into the next take. I love the feeling I get when nailing a scene through direction.
James Preston Rogers
#41. When I was in college, I studied business because I thought I wanted to be a director and producer.
Manish Dayal
#42. I did direct two short movies. I learned many things, and one of the things I learned was that I am not a director. It has to be visceral, and it's not for me. I feel much more comfortable acting.
Vincent Cassel
#43. Filmmaking has always involved pairs: a director coupled with a producer, a director alongside an editor ... The notion of couples is not foreign to cinema.
Luc Dardenne
#44. I'm not so in a rush to direct just anything because I'm lucky that I can make a living so far as an actor and not have to worry about that as a director. And so I can be a little more choosy in things I direct.
Steve Buscemi
#45. And later I thought, I can't think how anyone can become a director without learning the craft of cinematography.
Nicolas Roeg
#46. Sharing the same vision for what's on the page is always a good idea. The director's job is to establish what that is and make sure that everyone sticks to it when it comes down to actually executing it.
Thomas Jane
#47. As a director you come in and tell the actors how good they are.
Bryan Cranston
#48. I don't really consider myself a female director, and I don't want to do so for other women. Female directors are just directors.
Alante Kavaite
#49. To have a director that loves his actors is something that you can see in the film and in the fruits of that labor. You can see that translated in the film. When you watch such movie, you can see a director who loves his actors, and it shines through the movie, in my eyes.
Vin Diesel
#50. In some instances, I would say the writer does deserve equal billing with the director. In other instances the director - especially if he wrote part of the script himself - is clearly more the author of the movie.
Mark Romanek
#51. I'm not a real film buff. Unfortunately, I don't have time. I just don't go. And I become very nervous when I go to a film because I worry so much about the director and it is hard for me to digest my popcorn.
David Lynch
#52. I've always had a strange acting life. I'm the daughter of a director, and a very French, typical director who fell in love with every single one of his actresses. And that's also something that's kind of normal in the acting business, because everything is based on desire, one way or the other.
Lou Doillon
#53. Also, I plan to screw something up on every movie I do so that I can learn from my mistakes and become a better director with each project.
Richard King
#54. I think of Ray Harryhausen's work - I knew his name before I knew any actor or director's names. His films had an impact on me very early on, probably even more than Disney. I think that's what made me interested in animation: His work.
Tim Burton
#55. My film school is making movies. But, I do think that being an actor has served me immensely, as both a writer and director, in terms of knowing what is playable and what will be fun to play, for actors, and also how to communicate to actors on set, and not screw them up and get them in their head.
Josh Radnor
#56. My Mom is a ballet director, so I had this idea in me that classical training is the best foundation for anything you do, so I wanted to get a classical background and voice.
Shuler Hensley
#58. While a lab Director can get done the things that he regards as important, he has the more important job of bringing out the best ideas of the broader scientific community.
Burton Richter
#60. When you do a rewrite, it's really about serving the director's vision, and what the director needs to go into that script.
Kelly Marcel
#61. Usually, I don't want to sit down and listen to the director gas on about his movie. I just can't actually imagine myself sitting down and having that much to say.
Joel Coen
#62. I knew that I always wanted to be a filmmaker, an actor, a writer and a director, that was always my plan.
Jaime King
#63. I'm not only a writer, but have directed and produced, know the difficulties of the line producer, can deal with the studio, can talk with the director and get his or her vision and help exact that. I think it just gives you more tools.
John Lee Hancock
#64. Whether you're a cameraman or a director, you should ask yourself every now and then, 'What am I trying to do?' Be honest and keep things very simple.
James Wong Howe
#65. Probably the biggest challenge for me as a director was to not show how scared I was. I was surrounded by some of the most talented people in the industry, and I had to pretend I knew what I was doing.
John Krasinski
#66. What I like about being an actress is that it keeps you feminine. Being a director and producer makes you manly and very masculine and I don't like that quality in a woman. But I'll do it when the film is very close to me.
Bai Ling
#67. I started as an actor, then became a theater director. I loved acting but didn't feel as confident as I needed to be, so I started directing theater; then I played in some movies, and then I felt the need to do my own stuff.
Baltasar Kormakur
#68. You're in the business - when you're a writer, producer, director - to get ratings.
Norman Lear
#69. It's the reality: film is a director's medium, and, ultimately, they are the ones that are in charge, and you have to respect that because somebody has to be in charge. But, yeah, you do reach a point where you want to have your voice come out.
Dan Gilroy
#70. Visual elements are, of course, the director's job.
Park Chan-wook
#71. Even though I studied in New York and I know the American system, I come from France where I learned that with movies in France where the director is king. There's no such thing as a studio edit. It's the director's cut, period.
Louis Leterrier
#72. If you know where you stand, and your minus and plus points as a director or as a human being, you will never go wrong. You will always be successful.
Rohit Shetty
#73. People come up to me and say "Steve, what is film editing?" And I say "How should I know? You're the director.
Steve Martin
#74. Working with a great director is like getting a master class in acting.
Swoosie Kurtz
#75. I never think of myself as a celebrity - or even an actor, actually. I think of myself as a writer-director.
Ricky Gervais
#76. You know, the dirty secret in the Director's Guild is that the average life expectancy of Director's Guild members is 57 years old. The stress level is so high and directors are generally really out of shape, cause they sit in the chair and they eat craft service.
Eli Roth
#77. There are definitely reasons to do certain things, but I like to stick to good director, good actor, good script.
Amanda Seyfried
#78. When you hire great actors, you're lucky, so you just try to create an atmosphere where they can succeed and relax and take risks. You're happy that you get to watch them at the monitor and that your name is on the director's chair.
Ben Affleck
#79. As a director, my job is, and always has been, divided into a number of things: dealing with the crew, the money and the studio, and the marketing and publicity. These are all different jobs that have to be learned and done as well as possible. The celebrity part rarely touches a director.
Mike Nichols
#80. The relationship between an actor and a director is like a love story between a man and a woman. I'm sure sometimes I'm the woman.
Gerard Depardieu
#81. I think one of the reasons movies are the quintessential modern art form is that it is partially a business. The director needs a crew - the writer, the producer, etcetera - and to have that, he needs money.
Roger Corman
#82. I conceived the original 'Deus Ex' and was the project director on the game.
Warren Spector
#83. I'd love to be a huge television director. I definitely want to do that. I could imagine me going more and more into that, as I age.
Shiri Appleby
#84. An established film director can just pick up the phone and say to a star, 'Hey, are you interested in doing a commercial?'
Tony Scott
#85. I pay tribute to the writing always. The writer is a creative artist and the director is an interpretive artist and the actors are interpretive. You take zero and make it into something, that's always amazing to me.
Clint Eastwood
#86. The guy that made me wanna make movies ... and this is off the wall-is a guy named Michael Pal, the British director.
George A. Romero
#87. The film was semi-autobiographical. Director Mahesh Bhatt based it on his relationship with actress Parveen Babi.
Anupama Chopra
#88. I mean, it feels like a homecoming in a really wonderfully comfortable place to be - the same director, the same musical director, my same dressing room! [laughs] It's a great place to build something with freedom.
Kelli O'Hara
#89. I have never watched property programmes. I watch Property Ladder, because I feel it's very rude for a director to work very hard on a programme and you can't be bothered to even watch it. So I do watch it, but I have to turn away when I'm on screen. It's quite unpleasant seeing myself up there.
Sarah Beeny
#90. I love films. I love fiction films, too. I do. I love making them, but it has to be the right one. Hopefully, I'll never become a director for hire. It's horrible to make a film that you're not really interested in.
Oliver Stone
#91. I read the books the day before I had met with (director) Catherine Hardwicke. The first I heard of it was my agent called and said, 'Do you want to be in a vampire movie?' and I said 'No.' I thought it was like a zombie, blood-and-guts, vampire movie.
Peter Facinelli
#92. When you're an actor, you're very much exposed, but in a strange way you're totally protected behind a character, behind a script, behind a director.
Mathieu Demy
#93. One of the things about writing a novel is you can do it any way you want. It's your voice that's important and I see absolutely no reason why a screenplay can't be the same. It makes it a hell of a lot easier when you're the writer and the director.
Quentin Tarantino
#94. I used to take it personally when a casting director didn't like me or I didn't get picked for something. Now I realize you can't do that. It'll mess with your self-esteem. Don't take rejection overly personally. If that doesn't work out, there's something else waiting for you.
Sierra McCormick
#95. Nobody should force you to do a bad piece of work in your whole life - no client, no creative director, nobody. The job isn't to please the client; the job is to produce something for the client that makes them incredibly successful.
George Lois
#96. I love rehearsals and I love creating a character, sticking with it until you have something to tell. It's always different though. Sometimes a director will tell you from day one what they want. Then you throw in your idea.
Gael Garcia Bernal
#97. I majored in Chinese Studies. I'm probably the only director of chicken Indian zombie movies who can speak pretty good Mandarin.
Lloyd Kaufman
#98. If it's stage, the two most important artists are the actor and the playwright. If it's film, THE most important person is the director. The director says where the camera goes.
Brad Dourif
#99. When I write a film, the film gets handed off to a producer and a director and I go my merry way. With television, I am expected and contracted to stick around and actually produce what I've written.
Marc Guggenheim
#100. I do so love how all magic comes with its share of dire warnings and unclear requirements," sighed Tybalt. "It's like being on the stage, only there's no director, and the understudies have all died of typhus.
Seanan McGuire
Famous Authors
Popular Topics
Scroll to Top
