Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Tragedy makes you grow up.
I think I made good movies.
I fell in love again (laughs).
Actual violence has no attraction for me at all.
Only when you are relaxed can you see what's going on.
I have to admit that I had a lot of problems with poetry.
In some ways Holy Smoke is about people's journey to the heart.
The Piano ended up on television. Everything ends up there anyway.
'The Piano' ended up on television. Everything ends up there anyway.
There is a different kind of vulnerability when a woman is directing
I can't imagine people telling me what to do - I just can't imagine it.
So many actors are not open in front of the camera - they have a persona.
I think if it's interesting, it's interesting, and if it's not, it's not working.
I'm someone who loves to play. I make films so I can have fun with the characters.
If you read Keats's poems, they're often full of doubts and anxieties. They can be quite tough.
To deny women directors, as I suspect is happening in the States, is to deny the feminine vision.
The studio system is kind of an old boys system and it's difficult for them to trust women to be capable
As for how criticism of Keats' poetry relates to criticism of my own work, I'll leave that for others to decide.
But I think it's quite clear in my work that my orientation isn't political or doesn't come out of modern politics.
When you first fall in love it's so thrilling, you can't wait to throw yourself away and make this new wonderful twosome.
It's a luxury to be able to tell a long form story. I love novels, and I love to have a long relationship with characters.
It's harder being a woman director because on the whole women don't have husbands or boyfriends who are willing to be wives
I think the whole tension about romanticism is the way it builds and builds, and the moment it's consummated, the tension's over.
I think this is interesting, us human creatures are capable of love, and it's a very powerful emotion. It also can go awfully wrong.
What I have learned from my work up to now, is to try to be open, but also protect myself by not letting the good and the evil get too much importance.
When I read Andrew Motion's biography, I wept. It's something about the purity of the story and how fresh it was because of the love letters Keats wrote.
You know, sex is actually not so original as the way people love or the stories behind each relationship, which is what you remember. Sex is sex in the end.
Women today are dealing with both their independence and also the fact that their lives are built around finding and satisfying the romantic models we grew up with.
I love it when actors come to you with a problem and you have to listen. You'd like them to just get on with it, but it often means that there's a problem with the script.
I can get very philosophical and ask the questions Keats was asking as a young guy. What are we here for? What's a soul? What's it all about? What is thinking about, imagination?
I think feature film can be quite conservative, because you have to now get audiences to come out, and it's quite a hard thing to do. Of course, television can be conservative too.
There are some things that are real, that you can see, that you can observe, like the moon, and grass and things. But for ideas to become real, they have to be played on your senses.
I'm a much better filmmaker than painter. But studying it did make me visually acute and taught me lessons like being economic: Say something once and you don't have to say it again.
If you start with a good idea, you can encapsulate it in a phrase and explain it. I like high-concept films. Everyone can get hold of it. I don't think there's any harm in that at all.
Between 18 and 26 I acted professionally, on the stage and a little bit on television. Acting is okay, but it's quite pressurized. Then I went to England - I wanted to reinvent myself.
I've had a lot of different responses to my films. I got a lot of support from 'The Piano,' the obvious one, but it feels like an ocean, with a lot going on - the goal is to keep alive.
Performers are so vulnerable. They're frightened of humiliation, sure their work will be crap. I try to make an environment where it's warm, where it's OK to fail - a kind of home, I suppose.
For me, being a director is about watching, not about telling people what to do. Or maybe it's like being a mirror; if they didn't have me to look at, they wouldn't be able to put the make-up on.
I had this spooky psychological thing about 'The Piano' before it began, which was how everybody was going to go nuts on the set. Because a film tends to set up the way people are going to behave.
And, I mean, I think poetry does need to be met to some extent, especially, I guess, 19th century poetry, and for me, it's just been so worth the effort. It's like I'm planting a garden in my head.
I think that the romantic impulse is in all of us and that sometimes we live it for a short time, but it's not part of a sensible way of living. It's a heroic path and it generally ends dangerously.
I would love to see more women directors because they represent half of the population and gave birth to the whole world. Without them the rest [of the world] are not getting to know the whole story.
My musical knowledge is so bad it's embarrassing. When composers discuss music with someone as primitive as myself, they have to talk about it in terms of senses and emotion, rather than keys and tempo.
I think women don't grow up with the harsh world of criticism that men grow up with, we are more sensitively treated, and when you first experience the world of film-making you have to develop a very tough skin.
I don't belong to any clubs, and I dislike club mentality of any kind, even feminism - although I do relate to the purpose and point of feminism. More in the work of older feminists, really, like Germaine Greer.
I would love to see more women directors because they represent half of the population - and gave birth to the whole world. Without them writing and being directors, the rest of us are not going to know the whole story.
But short films are not inferior, just different. I think the short gives a freedom to film-makers. What's appealing is that you don't have as much responsibility for storytelling and plot. They can be more like a portrait, or a poem.
I think that three-act fundamentalism in film culture is a problem sometimes, because it's almost too obvious, or it's too expected. And it's not the only way to fill two hours, or to phrase things, or to order thoughts, or order ideas.
I had a daughter who was 9 years old and I had the feeling I wasn't going to be a real parent if I didn't quit making movies for a while and spend time with her. I also felt that I'd made enough movies and said what I had to say at the time.
The Piano Lesson' is very sophisticated, easily the most adult or complex material I've attempted. It's the first film I've written that has a proper story, and it was a big struggle for me to write. It meant I had to admit the power of narrative.