Ang Lee Quotes & Sayings

For a filmmaker, it's a rare chance to do a personal film on a big canvas. — Ang Lee

Film study was considered disgraceful by my father. — Ang Lee

A movie is really provocation. It's not a message, it's not a statement. — Ang Lee

San Francisco is one of my favourite cities in the world ... I would probably rank it at the top or near the top. It's small but photogenic and has layers ... You never have problems finding great angles that people have never done. — Ang Lee

If it was a choice between making movies and doing nothing, he'd probably still wish me to make movies, So he made me keep going. — Ang Lee

Not taboo - it's just that straight actors still risk their careers commercially and economically. They have to please the crowd - they're movie stars; their image is their industry. It goes beyond acting. — Ang Lee

I'm not macho, I'm not a Mel Gibson sort of person. — Ang Lee

My cultural roots are something illusive. — Ang Lee

I think people are universal. — Ang Lee

I had to find my way of translating the excitement you get when you're reading comic books to the big screen. — Ang Lee

I'm not a romantic. In life I didn't have much experience with romance. — Ang Lee

I am a shy person. — Ang Lee

These days I'm mostly familiar with two parts of L.A.: one is movie culture, and the other is Asian culture. The Westside is work, and the Eastside is Chinese - which means my friends. — Ang Lee

I did a women's movie, and I'm not a woman. I did a gay movie, and I'm not gay. I learned as I went along. — Ang Lee

My culture doesn't regard acting highly. — Ang Lee

Everyone in the gay community doesn't think alike. — Ang Lee

When there is a strong woman character in a story - that always grabs me. — Ang Lee

I'm a shy human being. — Ang Lee

I think great romance needs great obstacles and textures. — Ang Lee

I try to please everyone. — Ang Lee

When I see something I like, that's all that counts. What they use, how they get there, I never bother them. — Ang Lee

I'm not a master of films, I'm rather a slave. — Ang Lee

As artists, we like night more than day sometimes. — Ang Lee

When I'm not working, I get very down, but when I am working, I get very immersed in it. — Ang Lee

Economically, it's more expensive to make movies. I hope digital movies change that. — Ang Lee

In my culture, there's a tradition that when you're in an overwhelming situation and you don't know what to do, you put yourself in a woman's shoes. — Ang Lee

The thing we call critics are not really reviewers, they are not really critics. They don't have the discipline to write what we would term as critique - it's really just reviewers. They have a common man kind of taste. If you watch them overall, they are not different from the box-office. That's my view. — Ang Lee

The fear factor actually brings the genuineness. — Ang Lee

My mother loves me and everything goes well. I have no conflict with her, so that's not dramatic. — Ang Lee

I look at American movies, the big muscles, and try to apply that to Chinese film-making. — Ang Lee

Usually with this genre the first thing that happens is a good fight sequence to show that you're in good hands. So we broke that rule. I think a lot of that comes from the western audience. — Ang Lee

I'm a big boy now, and I have to deliver. — Ang Lee

I took the name Green Destiny from - well there is such a sword called Green Destiny. It is green because you keep twisting it, it's an ancient skill, you keep twisting it and knocking it and twisting it until it is very elastic and light. — Ang Lee

I grew up pretty peacefully, in that Eastern way. You easily solve problems, believe in harmony. Reduce conflicts, take orders until one day you give orders. — Ang Lee

I feel that everyone has a Hulk inside, and each of our Hulks is both scary and, potentially, pleasurable. That's the scariest thing about them. — Ang Lee

The first show to the journalists, that was the first one, so I was very uptight. Then I felt okay about the reception because we did a press conference with good and friendly questions, although people looked serious. So really, after the show you went to - the premiere - that reception tells me I think the movie worked, so that was a relief. I started to feel deflated. — Ang Lee

I'm just a pretty regular dad. — Ang Lee

So it's something I'm still learning, it's fresh, so if the budget allows I'll do it again and just see how far it goes because it's the frontier, it's more interesting. It's still expensive, the projection system can be annoying sometimes, it's not really regulated or perfected yet, so it's still expensive. If I do a lower budget I'll just do 2D, but if the budget allows I think I'll try 3D. — Ang Lee

3D is quite a lot more advanced in animated movies; for live-action movies we're just taking baby steps, we're just in the beginning. — Ang Lee

So anything that's not absolutely needed, we would cut it out, which would make me very insecure; everything has to work, and it's a water movie in 3D with a kid, animals. So the more I do that, the more I'm scared of "What if it doesn't go the way we want it?" But we had to do that to meet the budget, otherwise we wouldn't even have a start-date. — Ang Lee

Sometimes films ignore other points of view because it's simpler to tell the story that way, but the more genuine and sympathetic you are to different points of view and situations, the more real the story is. — Ang Lee

When I have a full schedule like that, I don't see myself sitting there for a couple of months, doing the research, going through a painful process, it's just not my thing anymore. — Ang Lee

I think, if allowed, 3D is a new film language. I can have more adventure exploring a new media, that's very exciting. 2D we know most of it, things haven't changed for decades; it's the same principles, so 3D's more exciting. — Ang Lee

You can get rich or famous by doing the same thing. — Ang Lee

I don't like to deal with studios. — Ang Lee

I have a lot of repression. So repression is what I make movies about. — Ang Lee

Sensitivity and money are like parallel lines. They don't meet. — Ang Lee

I just did a dramatic love story. Whether it's a cultural phenomenon is not for me to say. — Ang Lee

When you talk about God, the first thing that comes along is not love, it's fear. You have to fear, and be in awe. You have to be scared. Any religion, it's like first thing ... — Ang Lee

I think for most people, the audience probably couldn't tell the difference, but I know they can be better. And the people working know they can be more precise. I'm still doing another round of sound mixing and color timing, pretty technical stuff. I think the movie's really presentable, nothing was left out that would take you out of the movie. I just need to perfect the job and I still have two weeks to go. — Ang Lee

Making a martial arts film in English to me is the same as John Wayne speaking Chinese in a western — Ang Lee

I feel like all of my characters now take this congested situation, they clash, and from there you purge yourself. — Ang Lee

Making movies is a way of understanding myself and the world. — Ang Lee

Many times when you make a movie, it feels like your biggest mistake. But even if a film isn't a hit, you shouldn't view it as a mistake. — Ang Lee

To me, Ennis stands for the conservative side of America. He's the biggest homophobe in the whole movie - culturally and psychologically - but by the time he admits his feelings, it's too late. — Ang Lee

I basically made the movie from the crew's suggestions. For one scene, I wanted some kids' toys against the wall in Mikey's room, to give the scene texture, and we tried a field hockey stick. It looked really good to me, until someone had to say that in America, field hockey is more of a girl's game. Gradually I got tuned into the world - that happens on every movie. — Ang Lee

No matter how widely spread out the films are, how different, you still are you. — Ang Lee

Only one time in my career I had that feeling, it was for this movie. It was right before we started the physical pre-production. I pre-visualized the whole ocean part before we made the movie, I was that prepared. At one point they seemed to want to drop it because it was really risky. The budget we proposed was a lot higher than they expected, they wanted to [drop it]. After all, it's a philosophical book and a literature property, it's not Batman. — Ang Lee

I think I prefer 3D to 2D now. — Ang Lee

I think a movie is a media that is evoking feelings. — Ang Lee

I don't have a superpower. — Ang Lee

I find it hard to deliver straightforward things. — Ang Lee

I'm still a novice student. — Ang Lee

Emotions serve characters' purposes. That is their motivation. — Ang Lee

Now I'm kind of established as a director, I much prefer directing to writing. — Ang Lee

I make movies for a long time. It doesn't get easier. — Ang Lee

I think each movie-making process is a very exhausting and satisfying and fulfilling experience for me. — Ang Lee

You have to know the rules, otherwise you have no tools to communicate to the audience, but to keep it fresh you have to break some. I don't choose genres as the element, but the material itself is the element, then I'll decide what genre I need. That's just how I work. — Ang Lee

I'm a drifter and an outsider. There's not one single environment I can totally belong to. — Ang Lee

I do like challenge. — Ang Lee

I think I can work with any type of actor. — Ang Lee

I think doing period piece is easier, because after a certain distance, everybody is equal, I think. The relative contemporary is harder. I think that's the way it is. — Ang Lee

I am not particularly religious. But I think we do face the question of where God is, why we are created and where does life go, why we exist. That sort of thing. And it is very hard to talk about it these days, because it cannot be proven. It is hard to discuss it rationally. — Ang Lee

I grew up pretty much prevented from knowing anything from Communist China except that they were the bad guys that stole our country. — Ang Lee

It's not a pleasure torturing actors, although some of them enjoy it. — Ang Lee

I don't know if I make the best gay films. — Ang Lee

My hometown was one of the major U.S. Air Force bases. — Ang Lee

The father figure is something I love, but also suffocate from and want to work against. — Ang Lee

With 3D you're right there immersed in the world. — Ang Lee

There's only one movie in my career I've had regrets with cutting it shorter, and I think some scenes maybe I shouldn't have cut. — Ang Lee

I had to test a new terror in myself. — Ang Lee

I was very quiet, very shy and docile. — Ang Lee

I'm a storyteller. — Ang Lee

I think life without spirit is in the dark, it is absurd. — Ang Lee

I see a movie as a way of learning about the world, about myself, and learning about my relationship with people and art. — Ang Lee

When I started out, nobody gave me scripts, so I had to write. — Ang Lee

Things that don't have a big impact seem to be crucial. Always when you go out to make a movie you have questions, "What if this doesn't work? What if that doesn't work?" you want to cover yourself, you want to bring back enough [footage] so you can do something. — Ang Lee

There's a level of sophistication of filmmaking that's mind-boggling. Anything you need for your movie, there's an establishment that can make it happen really fast. — Ang Lee

Making this movie as a period piece about a period that was very recent in people's minds. I was in Taiwan [during the 1970s], so I hope I did all right. Otherwise, it could be the biggest embarrassment of my life. Also, the story is not linear, it's patchy, like a cubist painting, and there is always the possibility it will not hold together, it will fall apart. The tone is part satire, part serious drama, part tragedy, all mixed together, and it has to hit an emotional core. That's also very scary. — Ang Lee

Every movie is unknown. — Ang Lee

We need storytelling. Otherwise life just goes on and on, like the number Pi. — Ang Lee

It's just what I am. When I am in the zone making one movie, I just didn't want to read anything else or do anything else, so I don't really develop projects. — Ang Lee

Even dramatically how you position some person, the depth, the existence is different than a flat image even though by itself it has depth, we create the illusion of depth. For example, some of the shots I have to stay closer to the actor because it's a young actor, I like it closer for some of the shots. I watch 2D scenes next to the camera, then when I go back to my station and watch it in 3D I have to go back and reduce his acting, he has to shrink a little bit because he peeks out more. — Ang Lee

Even the favorite reviews, the audience response is the movie is too slow, deliberately slow. But for the Chinese audience, the biggest complaint is it happens too quick. I think the historical background that build into our genes is different. American people has never been occupied. The deep sadness and sentimentality, the cultural background that relates to melodrama that we relate to and grow up with, the propaganda, I didn't imagine the difference is so big. It's a very interesting cultural phenomenon. — Ang Lee

Summer blockbusters are very expensive to make. They have things that have to be expensive, such as 600 effects shots or CG characters that have to go a certain way, or a film design that is different but expensive. — Ang Lee

You become the movie you are making. — Ang Lee

Americans are hidden dragons to me. — Ang Lee

I have two sons in America, and all they care about in Chinese culture is Jackie Chan and Jet Li. — Ang Lee

The source of all the material comes from nothingness, illusion is working more on things you can prove. That's the principle, the essence of life, it is actually an illusion, not immaterial. That's worth pursuing. So illusion is not nothing. In a way, that is the truth. — Ang Lee

Thinking back to those earlier days, I felt I was weak when I wasn't making movies, and then when I was, I thought I was weak as a family member. — Ang Lee