William Friedkin Quotes

Ive never seen a more terrifying film than 'The Bababook'. It will scare the hell out of you as it did me.

I'm not a fan of Star Wars. That is not for me. That is for my nephews and nieces. I don't get it.

The informing idea of what you want to say and do, that's what will take you from film school to professional - the idea. That's what is original to you.

Style is something that's extremely important, but it must grow naturally out of who and what you are and what the material calls for. It cannot be superimposed.

I believe it's true that there's good and evil in everyone and it's a constant struggle to have your better angels prevail.

Directing is a nice job. It's the best job for me. If I had to pay money to do it, I would do it... Directing is playing. Acting.

To me, the art of movies is to take a two-dimensional image and give the illusion of depth.

Violence is not funny.

There are many untalented people making millions of dollars in the film business.

And it was only a week later that I realized a close up of Steve McQueen was worth the greatest landscape you could find.

We all wind up the same way, no matter what our goals or ambitions are. We have nothing at all to say about how we got into this world or how are going to leave it.

Edgar Allan Poe is considered the great writer of horror stories, perhaps the greatest - I will say the greatest

I'm not a fan of 3D. But I am a huge fan of digital imagery. Because it allows a filmmaker much more latitude to appreciate their own visions and dreams.

I have to see the whole scene in my head before I go out and do it. Which I do. I will envision the entire scene before I shoot it.

The digital process gives me total control over how I want the film to look. The films look like they did when I was first looking through the viewfinder.

I don't believe that Citizen Kane or Gone With the Wind, or any damn picture that you can name, would be better off in 3D. I think it's a gimmick. I find 3D distracting.

I had absolutely no focus as a kid. I never paid attention at school, I never went to college. Not because we were too poor; we were. But if I wanted to go to college, I would have found a way.

I don't like 3D. I don't believe there is any film that I have seen and loved that would have been improved by a scintilla in 3D. To me, it's just a gimmick.

When you make a Blu-ray, its not the same as the print process was. You have little or no control over any print that was ever made. You are a victim of the 35mm printing process.

There are films that I've made that I like a little bit more than the others. But the films that I mostly watch, and see over and over again, are not my own.

I have seen lampoons of my work. And I have really enjoyed them. But I would never do another version of The Exorcist.

If you call yourself a non-believer, you're referring to disbelief in something, and you're acknowledging that there is something to believe in or not.

I can't sit through the superhero films. But I watched Draft Day, and it was kind of sweet in an old-fashioned way.

The thing that interests me is the good and evil in everybody. I don't have conventional heroes in the films that I directed, because I believe there's good and evil in everybody.

'Star Wars' gave birth to all the computer-generated superhero films.

If Star Wars had failed, you wouldn't have 90 percent of what's out there today.

Star Wars is one of a handful of films that changed the zeitgeist forever.

I believe today that there is no film and no shot in a film that is worth a squirrel getting a sprained ankle.

You are always cheating for the audience.

I don't look back or analyze my films. I just make them. It's for someone else to look at.

The studios mostly threw away the negatives of the classic films. They had no interest in their legacy.

I don't go to the movies much anymore. There's very little that draws me. I watch mostly the older stuff, and I often don't sit through the new films.

If you're a movie star, the studios don't want you to act. They just want you to show up and look good and chase girls and have a lot of laughs.

I don't think sexuality defines a person. It's one small part of who you are, in my view. You are many things, and I never felt that people were defined by their sexuality solely.

Technique is of less interest than character and story.

The art of movies is to allow the audience to suspend their disbelief. They need to use their imaginations.