John Carpenter Quotes & Sayings

From a will: And to my communist nephew Oswald, I leave the sum of 10,000 pounds - to be shared equally with his fellow Britishers. — John Carpenter

I have two different categories of favorite films. One is the emotional favorites, which means these are generally films that I saw when I was a kid; anything you see in your formative years is more powerful, because it really stays with you forever. The second category is films that I saw while I was learning the craft of motion pictures. — John Carpenter

There are two different stories in horror: internal and external. In external horror films, the evil comes from the outside, the other tribe, this thing in the darkness that we don't understand. Internal is the human heart. — John Carpenter

I enjoyed 'The Avengers.' I couldn't do that kind of movie though. Superheroes aren't my deal. — John Carpenter

I can play just about any keyboard but I can't read or write a note. — John Carpenter

When somebody who makes movies for a living - either as an actor, writer, producer or director - lives to be a certain age, you have to admire them. It is an act of courage to make a film - a courage for which you are not prepared in the rest of life. It is very hard and very destructive. But we do it because we love it. — John Carpenter

When some wild-eyed, eight-foot-tall maniac grabs your neck, taps the back of your favorite head up against the barroom wall, and he looks you crooked in the eye and he asks you if ya paid your dues, you just stare that big sucker right back in the eye, and you remember what ol' Jack Burton always says at a time like that: "Have ya paid your dues, Jack?" "Yessir, the check is in the mail. — John Carpenter

I never got in this business, in cinema, to make horror movies. They arrived on my doorstep and I got typecast. Which was fine, I enjoy it, but I got into this business to make westerns. And the kind of westerns I used to see, they died. So that didn't work out. — John Carpenter

Way back in the '70s, I was approached to talk about the story I'd write for a Spider-Man movie. They also talked to me about Batman. I had to think about it, but that was way, way back when. — John Carpenter

Well, 'They Live' was a primal scream against Reaganism of the '80s. And the '80s never went away. They're still with us. That's what makes 'They Live' look so fresh - it's a document of greed and insanity. It's about life in the United States then and now. If anything, things have gotten worse. — John Carpenter

We all question our sanity. Everyone has had an experience of loss of control of something. — John Carpenter

Evil hiding among us is an ancient theme. — John Carpenter

You play with everything you've got. I'm not a lover of cheap tricks. I've always loved playing with people, but there's no rule about it. You try everything you can. — John Carpenter

I met this six-year-old child, with this blank, pale, emotionless face, and the blackest eyes... the devil's eyes."

~Dr. Sam Loomis/Halloween — John Carpenter

What a director does ... essentially, it's storytelling, but a director also controls the feeling and the sounds and the texture. It's an act of creation, like a symphony or a painting or a story. But with different tools. — John Carpenter

Anybody can make a movie, if you have the will. The digital revolution has made it very inexpensive to make a film. Anybody who wants to can do it. — John Carpenter

From early on, when synthesizers were first introduced into music, I liked the idea that you could get a big sound with them, electronic, but like an orchestra. And I could play it all myself. That was exciting. — John Carpenter

Fears are all psychological. Being afraid of death, loss of a loved one and disfigurement are all powered by your mind, and that's very powerful stuff. — John Carpenter

I love making movies. — John Carpenter

Monsters in movies are us, always us, one way or the other. They're us with hats on. The zombies in George Romero's movies are us. They're hungry. Monsters are us, the dangerous parts of us. The part that wants to destroy. The part of us with the reptile brain. The part of us that's vicious and cruel. We express these in our stories as these monsters out there. — John Carpenter

Halloween put me on the map, and I'm very sad to hear of his death. — John Carpenter

Directing is all about storytelling. It's not about equipment, or anything else. — John Carpenter

What scares me is what scares you. We're all afraid of the same things. That's why horror is such a powerful genre. All you have to do is ask yourself what frightens you and you'll know what frightens me. — John Carpenter

One could make money and get a career going with a low-budget horror film about killers attacking on holidays. It is always flattering to have somebody copy you. — John Carpenter

As a filmmaker, it's about surviving and lasting. So many talented people that I've known in my life - directors and writers - just haven't made it and haven't had a chance. — John Carpenter

Film buffs who don't live in Hollywood have a fantasy about what it's like to be a director. Movies and the people who make movies have such glamour associated with them. But the truth is, it's not like that. It's very different. It's hard work. — John Carpenter

I had a talent for scoring films. I just developed it. — John Carpenter

One of my heroes is a composer named James Bernard, and oh my God ... I can still listen to his music today and be stirred and moved by it. But I think that you fall in love with ... Well, again, when you're young, it really is more powerful. Much more terrifying. — John Carpenter

I stopped directing in 2001 for four or five years, until I did the TV series 'Masters Of Horror.' I had been working steadily as a director since 1970. That's a long time. I was burned out. — John Carpenter

The strongest human emotion is fear. It's the essence of any good thriller that, for a little while, you believe in the boogeyman. — John Carpenter

I just aim for basketball season to start. I don't really care about anything else in life. — John Carpenter

I've gone through various periods with superheroes. They work in the right hands, but they don't work in other hands. It's tricky. But any movie is tricky. It's impossible to say, 'This is what you do in any situation.' — John Carpenter

To make Michael Myers frightening, I had him walk like a man, not a monster. — John Carpenter

Movies are pieces of film stuck together in a certain rhythm, an absolute beat, like a musical composition. The rhythm you create affects the audience. — John Carpenter

You have to fight really hard for a private life, and sometimes you don't have one. It just gets to you after a while. It's tough. — John Carpenter

I'm pretty happy with who I am. I like myself and what I'm doing. I don't need to be the world's greatest director or the most famous
or the richest. I don't need to make a whole lot of great films. I can do my job and I can do it pretty well. This is the realization I've come to, later in life. It's called growing up. — John Carpenter

To make movies you just have to want it enough. You have to have the passion for telling stories. You have to get by the love-of-movies aspect. You can't just be a movie fan. — John Carpenter

There are a lot of movies that I don't care about, especially not remakes. — John Carpenter

Horror is a reaction; it's not a genre. Somebody's life would have to be in danger for it [story] to be a horror story. — John Carpenter

I don't watch my films. I've seen 'em enough after cutting them and putting the music on. I don't ever want to see them again. — John Carpenter

Remakes, in general, are a result of necessity being the mother of invention. They can't open movies consistently and break through the advertising clutter that's out there. — John Carpenter

Horror stories have always worked on film. It's where they work. That's where vampires and ghosts and UFOs are real. They're not particularly real in life, but they're real on the screen. It's the communal aspect of movie-watching. — John Carpenter

It's a very good time for horror. This business certainly has changed, but there's still room for serious horror films. Look at 28 Days Later, that's not a tongue-in-cheek picture. — John Carpenter

I don't want to be a part of the demographics. I want to be an individual. I wear each of my films as a badge of pride. That's why I cherish all my bad reviews. If the critics start liking my movies, then I'm in deep trouble. — John Carpenter

First of all, I was a wrestling fan when I was young. Even when I figured out what wrestling was, I was still a fan. — John Carpenter

I think there are certain subjects I don't want to tackle, that I don't think I could do a good job with. I don't think I'd be good with ... broad comedy? I don't know. Maybe I would. — John Carpenter

When I was a kid, I loved 'The Curse of Frankenstein,' 'The Creeping Unknown,' 'X: The Unknown.' I love 'Forbidden Planet,' 'The Thing from Another World.' They were science fiction/horror movies, generally. — John Carpenter

In Halloween, I viewed the characters as simply normal teenagers. Laurie, Jamie Lee's character, was shy and somewhat repressed. And Michael Myers, the killer, is definitely repressed. They have certain similarities. — John Carpenter

I made a decision back in 1978 that, in a trade off for money when I directed Halloween, I would have my name above the title in order to basically brand these movies my own. — John Carpenter

In England, I'm a horror movie director. In Germany, I'm a filmmaker. In the US, I'm a bum. — John Carpenter

Horror has been a genre since the beginning of cinema, all the way back to the days of silent films. I don't think it will ever go away because it's so universal. Humor doesn't always travel to other countries, but horror does. — John Carpenter

I'm always involved with casting my movies. I have final word on it. — John Carpenter