Eli Roth Quotes

#1. When people direct insults at me, I can take it.

Eli Roth

#2. I get a little too obsessive with work.

Eli Roth

#3. When I was 22, I had this horrible psoriasis outbreak. It was all over my legs, I couldn't walk because my legs were cracked and bleeding. Weird things like that can happen to your body.

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#4. Lucio Fulci is such a massively underrated director. Everyone knows him as the Godfather of Gore.

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#5. I need to eliminate 'like' from my vocabulary. I begin sentences with, 'That's seriously like ... ' I hear myself talking in this Los Angeles high-school student kind of way, and I hate it.

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#6. I was listening to music to kind of pump myself up and get psyched up, like I was listening to Iron Maiden and Misfits and Dead Kennedys, and it was like my '80s Massachusetts parking-lot heavy metal and Guns N' Roses.

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#7. Everybody has to know where they're coming from, what they're doing, why they're doing it, who they are. These are essentials.

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#8. It's just assumed that a horror sequel is going to be bad. It's never going to be as good as the first one.

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#9. What's important for me is staying healthy.

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#10. So when I was beating the guy, I started thinking, 'What if I was Hannah Montana?' ... And little do they know that that's why I look so insane ... I'm torturing myself with thoughts of, 'How could I actually pull off being a high school student and a pop star at night?'

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#11. I have a strong art-history background.

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#12. The one negative to horror is that it's always law of diminishing returns. When you go in the funhouse, the ride is never scary the second time. You will never have that pure experience as when you first watch it.

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#13. As a director, you have to know what actors are doing. You're the one telling them what to do. The actors' job is to come prepared to the set, but sometimes, if they're beginning actors or people who are non-actors, you have to teach them how to act.

Eli Roth

#14. Natural disasters are terrifying - that loss of control, this feeling that something is just going to randomly end your life for absolutely no reason is terrifying. But, what scares me is the human reaction to it and how people behave when the rules of civility and society are obliterated.

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#15. Everyone is so terrified of being labeled a racist.

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#16. I'm from Boston, and in Boston, you are born with a baseball bat in your hand. And actually, most of the bats in Massachusetts are used off the field instead of on the field, and we all had baseball bats in our cars in high school.

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#17. Look at comic books. It used to be something that only geeks were into. And now it's everywhere.

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#18. It's very flattering to feel like you actually helped create a sub-genre.

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#19. There's something very scary about exposing yourself on camera, knowing that you're going to be put on thousands of screens around the world for everyone to judge, but there's also something very thrilling and exciting about it.

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#20. A comedy can actually get funnier and funnier. Even though you know the joke, you enjoy it so much, it's the facial expression, you laugh. The laugh doesn't wear off. It could be with you for thirty years.

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#21. I love movies that are just straight-up exploitation, but the ones that endure and the ones that last are the ones where the filmmakers put in that extra level of thought; after 25 years you put them on in front of an audience, and they'll respond to it and enjoy it.

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#22. When I was filming the death scene [in Inglourious Basterds], and I'm killing somebody, I had to work myself up.

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#23. I like to take risks and do weird things and stuff that's not normal compared to other Hollywood movies. Not stuff that's totally avant garde and daring, but doing stuff that's in other languages and not using stars and using real people - things that they generally don't do in mainstream films.

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#24. One of the great elements of the supernatural is having that mystery and letting people's imaginations run wild with it.

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#25. Anytime you make a movie, the goal is a wide theatrical release, with the right distributor.

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#26. You have to write scenes and design scenes that are scary and horrific, but that are also watchable. I didn't want people to just feel like they got punched in the stomach.

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#27. I've always wanted to make a big apocalypse movie. I love 28 Weeks Later, I think it's great but Cell is totally different. It's about people's dependence on technology, the collapse of society and watching everything fall apart. That's something I've always wanted to do, which I believe it can!

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#28. Hopefully we'll get to a point where people realize movies don't cause violence. It just reflects the violence going on in the culture.

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#29. I think that many people are ashamed when they feel afraid. There's this thing in our society that you're not allowed to feel scared. You have to be a man and put on a brave face, but we all have fears.

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#30. I have so many different projects, I hear voices in my head - the characters talking all at once - and I have to write to make them stop.

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#31. Horror audiences don't need to see some TV actor they're familiar with.

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#32. My phobias worsen as I get older. I'm scared of flying, driving. I'm terrified of sharks. I'm a germaphobe. But I try to face my fears; I do. Well, most of them.

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#33. When you're making a television show, it's about the story and arc of the show rather than any particular episode or director.

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#34. Anytime you're the first to speak out against something, there's going to be a backlash.

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#35. 'Beatrice Cenci' was an amazing film. If it were released today it'd win Best Picture. It's so well done, it's so contemporary, and the filmmaking is so smart.

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#36. Possession and exorcism is something that's in every religion and every culture. It's a real primal fear: Is the body a vessel for our spirits? What happens if something else takes over it? Where does the spirit go?

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#37. I think in life we get very caught up in the minutia and, unfortunately, it generally takes some sort of tragedy in your life to put things in perspective.

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#38. I think in the late '80s and early '90s horror was dead.

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#39. I've always dreamed of having a year-round haunted house.

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#40. I feel like in the '90s, horror just lost its way and everything became so safe and watered-down.

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#41. 'Hostel' is that's how I feel about what's going on in Iraq. There's people that just want money and people are being sacrificed for it.

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#42. With Hostel II I thought I had a very, very strong female audience so I'm going to make a movie that's going to appeal to them. The guys will love it, they'll have their moments. But there'll be a lot more male nudity in this one. I have a lot of sausage in this one!

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#43. Once I got over the fear of writing female characters, it actually came quite easily and I was really happy with it. I just thought about girls I knew really, really well and I'd just have conversations with them and tried to relay how they talk about certain things.

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#44. The world is changing. Social media is a way to sell movies and to build a fan base. The truth is that you have followers because they know you are into it and you're funny and you like it. I think it's great.

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#45. I never put out a vanilla edition of a DVD.

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#46. As a kid, I was the neighbourhood baby-sitter - very responsible, always in charge.

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#47. I knew how to act and had studied acting and enjoyed it, but I'd never pushed myself to really perform as an actor, and create a role, and have the whole character's backstory.

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#48. I hear what people say, I read all the reviews, all the blogs, and I am always curious to hear it, because you can't always listen to the good press, you have to hear the bad press, too.

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#49. What I've always thought I would do is make a bunch of movies and then stop to teach for awhile. And then just teach at film schools - you know, teach children.

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#50. 'Eraserhead' is a weird, horrible nightmare, and it doesn't narratively make sense. Stuff's happening, but you honestly feel like you're in a nightmare, and it has such disturbing imagery that it stays with you forever once you've seen it.

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#51. I have the infinite galaxy from '2001' as my screensaver - so if I space out while I'm writing and it goes to screensaver, I can just stare off into the stars.

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#52. Twitter is wonderful. You can kill rumours instantly.

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#53. There's a crazy, false notion that audiences are not patient or will not watch a story, that you have to put in a scare every ten minutes. But I always thought that was insane.

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#54. Life is a series of avoiding horrible situations until ultimately you're dead. That's how I feel about things.

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#55. I'm not interested in going after a part. I think if someone wants me for a part and approaches me then I'll take it on a case-by-case basis and see what that part is.

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#56. I love movies. I mean, I really, really love movies.

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#57. The point of the first one was that it was about guys being lured by sex and the stereotypes ... I always say it's like a horror version of Borat. Borat's not an accurate depiction of Khazakstan, it's an accurate depiction of America. That's what Hostel is.

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#58. When I go see an R-rated horror movie, I want lots of violence.

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#59. One of the great joys of life, now that you can afford a nice suit, is getting one for free. That's why I like to do press tours - I always say making movies is just an excuse to get free clothing.

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#60. Movie stars need to retain some of that mystique if you are a big movie star.

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#61. I don't want people to feel: "Why am I watching this? It's sick and sadistic." I want people to watch and think it's scary but they can't wait to see what happens next. I also wanted to make a movie that was watchable.

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#62. I have no tattoos. There's nothing I've even been that into to get a tattoo of it.

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#63. I think you should make movies as long as the story dictates.

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#64. I think filmmakers, in general ... There are some awesome, really great filmmakers - but on the whole, filmmakers, actors, I think they are the biggest bunch of whiny, over-paid babies on the planet.

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#65. Much of my youth was spent in the parking lot or inside a Dunkin' Donuts.

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#66. I want to have an ending where people say: "That's the most shocking ending I've ever seen in a mainstream horror film."

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#67. There's fear in everything, but we can't just succumb to that. We have to suppress it, so we get used to suppressing fear to make it through the our day. Otherwise, we'd become paralyzed by them.

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#68. If someone gets up and walks out of the movie, it means it's really affected them.

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#69. Chile could work as a double for L.A.; it's very production-friendly and there's terrific talent down there.

Eli Roth

#70. You'd be lucky to get tortured to death in one of my films. It's the best thing that could happen to your career. But I'm very aware that as soon as you put women in this situation, all of a sudden people are like: "Wow, well wait a second!" Immediately, people become very sensitive to it.

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#71. I've realized that I can't multitask in the writing department; I can only kind of do one thing at a time.

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#72. Creative writing and shooting are muscles that atrophy. But when you work them, you become a self-generator who can branch out.

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#73. I think horror should never be safe, whether it's violent or non violent.

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#74. You do need an outlet to release all of those fears. You build it up and then, when you go to a movie theater, it's the last place that it's socially acceptable to be terrified. It's saying that, for the next 90 minutes, you're allowed to be afraid and you're not a coward for feeling that way.

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#75. 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.

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#76. I'll direct any movie starring a monkey or the Olsen Twins. Preferably both.

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#77. I love historical movies. I want to make a violent medieval epic.

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#78. I think characters are most terrifying when they're relatable. It's best when your most horrible characters make sense, and are believable. That's when a movie is most terrifying.

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#79. My parents love it! They're on set. They make cameos in the movie. My father is a psycho-analyst and a professor at Harvard and he told me how many of the other professors at Harvard have gone and seen it. They love Hostel and they love the thought behind it.

Eli Roth

#80. Pulp Fiction won the Palme d'Or and people said: "Wait a minute, he's actually smart and he knows what he's doing!" I feel that with Hostel, any time you make a film like that it's going to illicit a strong reaction and you can't worry about that.

Eli Roth

#81. I've always been fascinated by the idea that there's no such thing as evil; it's all in your point of view. To one group a suicide bomber is the antichrist and to one he's a hero.

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#82. Some disaster movies look like you're watching someone else play video games. They're fun but it's not real.

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#83. You know, the best thing you can say about a horror film is, 'Don't see it.'

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#84. Sometimes you have this tragedy which turns into an incredible opportunity.

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#85. I want it to be able to hold up in 30 years' time. So, I'm really thinking about everything.

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#86. We live in an age now where so many people watch movies based on what Netflix recommends. It learns your taste and they really understand viewer habits.

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#87. I want a movie that 30 years from now, people can look back and see it as a reflection of where the culture was at - as a barometer of the culture.

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#88. Believe it or not, but I was a camp councilor for three years. I love kids.

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#89. Quentin Tarantino assistant called me and said: "I have good news and bad news. The good news is you got the part, the bad news is you have to do it." I was like: "Oh Jesus, when am I supposed to do this?" I was prepping Hostel.

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#90. I felt people responded to two things. One, obviously, is the gore and the scenes like the eye gauging.

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#91. What is important to me is that people know I respect the business of making movies.

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#92. I love movies that have that resonating scare, that really get under your skin and make you think.

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#93. The best movies now are called 'thrillers.' Because if you use the word 'horror,' people's associations are straight-to-video crap.

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#94. Even the European critics ... They said Hostel is the smartest film they'd seen on capitalism and how it's gone too far.

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#95. People want to be disturbed when they go see a horror movie.

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#96. Even post-WWII, nobody talked about the Holocaust. It wasn't until the '50s that people started talking about it.

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#97. In musical theater, if you have a song, it has to advance the plot. If you have a song in a musical and it does not advance the plot, it gets dropped.

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#98. If you don't want to be scared in a horror film, don't close your eyes. Close your ears.

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#99. I always say that no matter what the torture is, or the tool is, first of all it's nothing worse than what's been done already and that wasn't done by the church and the state for over a period of 250 years during the European witch trials.

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#100. I started the film [Hostel Part II]with the girls in an art class and there's a nude male model. People think that women are objectified, well here you go! Here's a man being objectivized but now it's under the guise of art.

Eli Roth