The underground of the city is like what's underground in people. Beneath the surface, it's boiling with monsters.

In real life, what scares me is politicians, corporations and people that think they know what the world should be.

I see horror as part of legitimate film. I don't see it as an independent genre that has nothing to do with cinema.

I believe that the physical effect, the physical set, whenever you can, is ten times better than the digital effect.

I truly try to create beauty and reflection and all of that as conscientiously and judiciously and minutely as I can.

I think that evil is a spiritual engine in our world, our lives, our universe, that functions in order to create good.

When you shoot in America, you have huge beams of sunlight in the windows, very vivid sunlight - it's faster in a way.

You cannot dictate what people find funny, what people find attractive, or what people find scary. There is not a norm.

I only produce movies that have something stylistically different, so that I can learn from the experience of producing.

I love monsters the way people worship holy images. To me, they really connect in a very fundamental way to my identity.

In the case of 'Shape Of Water,' I want it to feel like a song. I wanted people to come out of the movie humming the movie.

More and more, as I grow older, I find myself looking for inspiration in painting, illustration, videogames, and old movies.

I am the nice adversary, the guy that's going to ask the tough questions and is not going to be happy with the quick answer.

I think love is the greatest force in the universe. It's shapeless like water. It only takes the shape of things it becomes.

I believe that we will elevate and differentiate the discourse of cinema the more we discuss image creation in specific terms.

Night is real. Night is not an absence of light, but in fact, it is daytime that is a brief respite from the looming darkness.

You can't explain success in retrospect. The moment you leap into the void, that moment is impossible to negate, after success.

I see horror as part of legitimate film. I don't see it as an independent genre that has nothing to do with the rest of cinema.

I would like to avoid dying if possible. I do like living! The worst, I think for me, though, would be a really bedridden death.

I think when you get all the money and all the freedom, rarely do you get a good movie out of it or a movie that you're proud of.

I believe that we, every day, 24-7, all the days of our lives, we are, all of us, agents of construction and agents of destruction.

The saddest journey in the world is the one that follows a precise itinerary. Then you're not a traveler. You're a f@@king tourist.

There are a lot of period movies where they say, 'This is a portrait of Lady Whatever.' And it's done in like a 1950s or 60s style.

for in the absence of God he had found Man. Man killing man, man helping man, both of them anonymous: the scourge and the blessing.

I really wanted the house to be a character. And I knew, I said, I'll produce that one, but if I direct it, I need to build a house.

The reason there's a 'Hellboy 2' is not because the studios were passionate about the first one; it's because the numbers made sense.

I love the creation of these things — I love the sculpting, I love the coloring. Half the joy is fabricating the world, the creatures.

I like actors that are good with pantomime and that can transmit a lot by their presence and attitude more than through their dialogue

I like actors that are good with pantomime and that can transmit a lot by their presence and attitude more than through their dialogue.

I started seeing in the monsters as a more sincere form of religion because the priests were not that great, but Frankenstein was great.

I have a schizophrenic career. I have 'Cronos' and 'The Devil's Backbone' on one hand, and then I have 'Blade 2' and 'Mimic' on the other.

You think if you work hard enough, you can fix the precious things you've broken - rather than being careful with them in the first place.

You’ll meet her. She’s very pretty, even though sometimes she’s sad for many days at a time. You’ll see, when she smiles, you’ll love her.

Screenplay is the toughest form of writing for me, because you need to be in present tense. You need to be describing things as they occur.

If you give an actor a green screen, the shot may work, but that green screen will not inspire you on the set as a director or as an actor.

I love what many of my contemporaries are doing, especially people like Terry Gilliam, David Cronenberg, P. T. Anderson, and Alfonso Cuaron.

I don't want to move over to Beverly Hills. My goal is to make the movies I want to make and support the people I want to support. That's it.

I thought the tooth fairy was a very creepy concept as a kid. "Put your tooth under the pillow." I was like "Why does someone want my teeth?".

Films are fantastic - they are one of the peaks of human narrative. But I'm sorry to break the news to the movie industry: So is a video game.

I'm fortunate enough that my personal life falls into whack with my professional life. My kids love visiting the sets; they love the monsters.

And yet one carries the sins of his forebears as one carries their features in his face. One bears their blood, and their honor or their blight.

I was very attracted to doing 'The Wolverine' in Japan because that's my favorite chapter in the story of Wolverine. But I'm not a superhero guy.

The only true immortality is when you don't care if you die. The moment you stop giving credence to gain is when you become invulnerable to pain.

If you're doing a big spectacle film, you've got to be mindful of large masses. Even then, you've got to be responsible only to your storytelling.

If you ask me, I alternate between truly bizarre, what you would call 'Hollywood' movies and truly bizarre, what you would call 'arthouse' movies.

With supernatural things, I have heard ghosts, but I've never seen ghosts. I do seek ghosts and I would love to see one, but I would crap my pants.

The creature from the black lagoon - I drew that creature almost every day, two, three times a day, for probably my first ten years of life, you know.

I think damage to the eye or damage to the teeth is one of the most universally cringing things you can do in a movie and these are very fragile sounds.

In a world where we are so pragmatic and materialistic, fear is the only emotion that allows even a sophisticated person to believe in something beyond.

I think that is the ultimate cowardice, when someone makes your choices for you in an institutional way. And you just say, "Well, I have no other option."

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