Peter Jackson Quotes & Sayings

I've always been happy to take a gamble on myself. — Peter Jackson

I thought that there might be something unsatisfying about directing two Tolkien movies after 'Lord of the Rings.' I'd be trying to compete with myself and deliberately doing things differently. — Peter Jackson

If you take 'The Hobbit' and 'The Lord of the Rings' as books, one is written for children, and one is an adult's book. — Peter Jackson

What I think is remarkable about my mum and dad is they had no interest in films, really. None. — Peter Jackson

I watch 'Goodfellas,' and suddenly it frees me up entirely; it reminds me of what great film directing is all about. — Peter Jackson

To be an original is probably the hardest quality to find if you're a young filmmaker. — Peter Jackson

I just got to the point where I literally didn't want anyone else to do it. — Peter Jackson

In the old days, you cut out a scene that might've been a really great scene, and no one was ever going to see it ever again. Now, with DVD, you can obviously ... there's a lot of possibilities for scenes that are good scenes. — Peter Jackson

If you work at love, you will find love at work. — Peter Jackson

I don't believe in the concept that 3D should be shot separately. I mean, every director has their own style, sure, but I don't think any of that is really an issue with 3D. — Peter Jackson

Once upon a time, sound was new technology. — Peter Jackson

I never wanted to do 'The Hobbit' in the first place. — Peter Jackson

I want to put everything I think I've learned about filmmaking and storytelling and put it to the test in other areas. — Peter Jackson

I used to send away for eight-minute Super 8 movies of various Ray Harryhausen scenes advertised on the back of 'Famous Monsters of Filmland' magazine. — Peter Jackson

I feel very lucky to be able to make movies in New Zealand, and I will always be grateful for the support I have received from so many New Zealanders. — Peter Jackson

I regard myself as being the final filter so everything that ends up in the movie is there because it's something that I think was cool. — Peter Jackson

Forty-eight frames per second is a way, way better way to look at 3D. It's so much more comfortable on the eyes. — Peter Jackson

I don't quite know what an auteur is. — Peter Jackson

Fantasy is an 'F' word that hopefully the five second delay won't do anything with — Peter Jackson

We are living in an age where teenagers are not going to the movies. — Peter Jackson

There was a great magazine in the '80s called 'Cinemagic' for home moviemakers who liked to do monster and special effects movies. It was like a magazine written just for me. — Peter Jackson

The most honest form of filmmaking is to make a film for yourself. — Peter Jackson

I want to make a series of movies that run together, so if any crazy lunatic wants to watch them all in a row, there will be a consistency of tone. — Peter Jackson

I love writing, and I love postproduction. That's great, because you start to reassemble the film, and you sit there, and you start to really put the film together, finally. The shooting of it is the most stressful part of the process. — Peter Jackson

Remember, pain is temporary; film is forever. — Peter Jackson

I've always tried to make movies that pull the audience out of their seats ... I want audiences to be transported. — Peter Jackson

I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something. — Peter Jackson

Where film is infinitely superior to any other medium is emotion and story and character. — Peter Jackson

I can't take responsibility for everyone's employment. — Peter Jackson

There's a very go-to kind of attitude in New Zealand that stems from that psyche of being quite isolated and not being able to rely on the rest of the world's infrastructure. — Peter Jackson

If I'm lucky enough to be involved in the Academy Awards in the future, I'll just let people make up their decision without being involved in any politics. Because it shouldn't involve that. — Peter Jackson

What I love about films is that you can see "King Kong" and you can be affected by it and then you realize that he was just this little guy when he made that fall. — Peter Jackson

48 frames per second is something you have to get used to. I've got absolute belief and faith in 48 frames ... it's something that could have ramifications for the entire industry. 'The Hobbit' really is the test of that. — Peter Jackson

I am not anti-media at all. But the media, the news anywhere in the world, is based on drama. — Peter Jackson

I remember when I was - I must've been 17 or 18 years old - I remember 'The Empire Strikes Back' had a big cliffhanger ending, and it was, like, three years before the next one came out. — Peter Jackson

To me, fantasy should be as real as possible. I don't buy into the notion that because it's fantastic, it should be unrealistic, because I think you have to have a sense of believing the world that you're going into. — Peter Jackson

I am a big Dragon fan. I've said it before- And I was fortunate enough to be born a Dragon in the Chinese Horocope ... — Peter Jackson

You shouldn't think of these movies as being 'The Lord of the Rings.' The Lord of the Rings is, and always will be, a wonderful book - one of the greatest ever written. Any films will only ever be an INTERPRETATION of the book. In this case my interpretation. — Peter Jackson

When you're directing, you're right at the coal face, always exhausted, often emotional - and I'll enjoy being a couple of steps back from that and simply helping where I can. — Peter Jackson

Obviously, movies, you're often on location, out in the rain or the sun, in a real place where the trees and the cars are real. But when you're on stage, as an actor you're imagining the environment that you're in. — Peter Jackson

When you look at the original 'Paradise Lost' film, you see three kids who can't defend themselves, being persecuted in a medieval way - witchcraft, satanic worship. It was kind of primitive. — Peter Jackson

Every film is a challenge. I always say that making a movie is like film school - you're always learning. But unlike most schools, you never get done with it. You never learn everything. — Peter Jackson

And so I look back on not just the last ten years but everything that I've done as being sort of an ongoing growing continual film school. I mean I don't think I've got to a point where I've achieved anything that feels like, a particular milestone, but there's still a lot more to learn and hopefully a lot more films to make. — Peter Jackson

What I don't like are pompous, pretentious movies. — Peter Jackson

I think 'Jaws' is a remarkable film. — Peter Jackson

To his ex-wife in court, he said I lost interest in you when the Botox lost its effect and you looked like a plastic doll that escaped from a fire. — Peter Jackson

Filmmaking for me is always aiming for the imaginary movie and never achieving it. — Peter Jackson

The industry has to have the audience in order to make these films. So it's a serious thing - how do you get people to leave their houses and go to the theater? — Peter Jackson

When you're casting a movie and when you're shooting a film, the eyes are the most important feature of any performer, really. Any great actor literally knows exactly how to use their eyes, and even as a filmmaker I love shooting huge close-ups because it's those eyes that mean so much to me. — Peter Jackson

We had to get past the mechanical film age to be able to explore other things, but it will be interesting. — Peter Jackson

It is now such a complex society in terms of media. It just comes at us from every direction. You kind of have to push it all away. — Peter Jackson

I'm not going to head off and do a Marvel film. So if I don't do a Marvel film, I don't have any other choice - I've got to go make a small New Zealand movie! — Peter Jackson

People sort of accuse Tolkien of not being good with female characters, and I think that Eowyn actually proves that to be wrong to some degree. Eowyn is actually a strong female character, and she's a surprisingly modern character, considering who Tolkien actually was sort of a stuffy English professor in the 1930s and '40s. — Peter Jackson

The director has to win, because you should never force a director to shoot something they don't believe in. — Peter Jackson

I don't like directing that much to want a career as a director for hire. I like to have as much creative control as possible. — Peter Jackson

New Zealand is not used to wealth. In America wealth is kind of a thing of pride. Here it's the opposite. The more you've got, the bigger the target you are. — Peter Jackson

I don't think that because you die and move on to somewhere else that you lose your sense of humor. — Peter Jackson

Motion-capture is not a genre. Motion-capture is a tool and technique and what we tried to do was to really use both motion-capture and traditional animation to build a system. — Peter Jackson

One of the first movies I ever saw was 'Batman,' based on the TV series with Adam West and Burt Ward. — Peter Jackson

Prosthetic makeup is always frustrating. — Peter Jackson

'Bad Taste' was - it was, in many respects, my sort of, my, I guess, my single-minded desire to want to break into the film industry when New Zealand didn't really have a film industry to break into. — Peter Jackson

[While shooting close-ups] you study real eyes, you study how the light reflects in them, you study the back of the eye, you study the way irises reflect emotion. You go into great scientific detail. — Peter Jackson

I just think that we're living in a world where the technology is advancing so rapidly. You're having cameras that are capable of more and more - the resolution on cameras is jumping up. — Peter Jackson

The first day I start shooting, I start having a recurring nightmare that every single night that I am lying in bed, and there is a film crew surrounding the bed, waiting for me to tell them what to do, and I don't quite know what movie I am supposed to be making. — Peter Jackson

Strategically, horror films are a good way to start your career. You can get a lot of impact with very little. — Peter Jackson

I hope one day that I'll get to make another horror film; I'd love to. — Peter Jackson

I don't really want to make a stylized film or anything too surreal. — Peter Jackson

The one thing with 3D presentations is I think that 3D itself, whether it's 24 or 48, is at a very interesting point in time. — Peter Jackson

You never make movies for Oscars. — Peter Jackson

I don't really like the Hollywood blockbuster bandwagon that exists right now. The industry and the advent of all the technology, has kind of lost its way. It's become very franchise driven and superhero driven. — Peter Jackson

I was bullied and regarded as little bit of an oddball myself. — Peter Jackson

The only thing about 3-D is the dullness of the image. — Peter Jackson

I think 3D at 24 frames is interesting, but it's the 48 that actually allows 3D to achieve the potential that it can achieve, because it's less eye strain and you have a sharper picture which creates more of a 3-dimensional world. — Peter Jackson

As a filmmaker, you want nothing more than to have people say, 'I love your movie.' — Peter Jackson

I like to keep an open mind, but I do think there is some form of energy that exists separate to our flesh and blood. I do think that there's some kind of an energy that leaves the body when it dies, but I certainly don't have religious beliefs particularly. — Peter Jackson

I make cameos in all my movies for no particular reason other than a joke. It's just a Hitchcock thing. — Peter Jackson

There's no real rules about what you do [while directing]; it's just you just use your instincts as to the pacing of a film and what is repetitive and what is the minimum amount you can get away with to tell the story, that scene didn't make it in. — Peter Jackson

In an ideal world the script is written lean and tight and therefore there are no scenes left on the cuttring room floor and therefore no extended edition. — Peter Jackson

There is a lot of 'Halo' movie material no one has ever seen in New Zealand. — Peter Jackson

We've all forgotten how to be original. — Peter Jackson

Learning how to edit movies was a real breakthrough. — Peter Jackson

To direct a genuinely animated film, you're really having meetings and discussing what you want with animators who then go off and produce one shot at a time that you look at and comment on. — Peter Jackson

Everybody's life has these moments, where one thing leads to another. Some are big and obvious and some are small and seemingly insignificant. — Peter Jackson

I don't like putting glasses on and watching 3D. I don't mind wearing glasses, but it's the dimness of the light and the fact that you're filtering the light. Whatever 3D process is being used is a filtration of light, which means it's blocking some of the light. — Peter Jackson

A pregnant woman is like a beautiful flowering tree, but take care when it comes time for the harvest that you do not shake or bruise the tree, for in doing so, you may harm both the tree and its fruit. — Peter Jackson

I find that in the process of making a film you're constantly discovering things that you never even imagined would work at the beginning. Actors come into the film and do things you never even imagined. Production designers come in, the director of photography lights it in a way that you never imagined. So, it's always evolving, always exciting. — Peter Jackson

I regard myself as an entertainer much more than an artist. — Peter Jackson

The producers of 'The Hobbit' take the welfare of all animals very seriously and have always pursued the highest standard of care for animals in their charge. — Peter Jackson

He who must search a haystack for a needle is likely to end up with the attitude that the needle is not worth the search. — Peter Jackson

If you make a trilogy, the whole point is to get to that third chapter, and the third chapter is what justifies what's come before. — Peter Jackson

The Tolkien estate owns the writings of Professor Tolkien. 'The Hobbit' and 'The Lord of the Rings' were sold by Professor Tolkien in the late '60s, the film rights. — Peter Jackson

So many film makers are scared of visual effects - which is no crime. — Peter Jackson

The idea of an animated film is you always kind of get a little bit daunted by it as a filmmaker because it feels like a lot of your communication is going to be with computer artists, and you're going to have to kind of channel the movie through extra pairs of hands. — Peter Jackson

In every house, when the curtains are drawn, there's a story going on, and you never get to hear ... You get the public side of things, the happy, smiling, social activities. — Peter Jackson

I have a million questions about my granddad and no one to talk to. — Peter Jackson

One of the best things about growing up in New Zealand is that if you are prepared to work hard and have faith in yourself, truly anything is possible. — Peter Jackson

If you take a regular animated film, that's being done by animators on computers, so the filmmaking is a fairly technical process. — Peter Jackson

To get an Oscar would be an incredible moment in my career, there is no doubt about that. But the 'Lord of the Rings' films are not made for Oscars, they are made for the audience. — Peter Jackson

Once the film is out and a lot of people are seeing it, it becomes almost owned by the cinemagoers of the world. — Peter Jackson

I never dreamed in a million years that 'The Lord of the Rings' would be nominated for an Oscar. Those types of fantasy movies never got nominations. — Peter Jackson