Roger Corman Quotes & Sayings

You can make a movie about anything, as long as it has a hook to hang the advertising on. — Roger Corman

Somebody said, 'Roger doesn't know how to spend money.' And I thought, 'I don't spend money because I don't have it!' If I had it, I could spend money! That's about the only time I was told that! — Roger Corman

In science-fiction films the monster should always be bigger than the leading lady. — Roger Corman

As a producer, I probably am a little stronger than most, since I was a director originally. — Roger Corman

Motion pictures are the art form of the 20th century, and one of the reasons is the fact that films are a slightly corrupted artform. They fit this century - they combine Art and business! — Roger Corman

Other writers, producers, and directors of low-budget films would often put down the film they were making, saying it was just something to make money with. I never felt that. If I took the assignment, I'd give it my best shot. — Roger Corman

When I started, every film got a full theatrical distribution. Today, almost no low budget films, maybe two or three a year, will get a full theatrical distribution. We've been frozen out of that, which means they must be aware that for a full theatrical distribution it either has to be something like Saw or some exploitation film of today or an extremely well made personal film. — Roger Corman

The safest genre is the horror film. But the most unsafe - the most dangerous - is comedy. Because even if your horror film isn't very good, you'll get a few screams and you're okay. With a comedy, if they don't laugh, you're dead. — Roger Corman

One of the worst things you can do is have a limited budget and try to do some big looking film. That's when you end up with very bad work. — Roger Corman

My father was an engineer, .. But I found out that the film critics for the Stanford Daily got free passes for all the films. So I became first an assistant critic and then the main film critic. Those free passes changed my life. — Roger Corman

I love the process of making films and an incidental satisfaction is the fact that most of them made money. — Roger Corman

Once they were men. Now they are land crabs. — Roger Corman

There are eleven or twelve or thirteen cities in China with populations of over 10 million people and most people in the West have never even heard of these cities. — Roger Corman

People gravitate occasionally to the brilliantly made art low budget films, which is maybe one out of every five hundred low budget films made. — Roger Corman

Maybe it's just a matter of getting older and being aware that the market for medium-budget and low-budget films, which is of course what I spent most of my life making, has diminished. And maybe the quantity of ideas has diminished a little bit. — Roger Corman

In order to create art today, you have to compromise your art somewhat and be a businessman. — Roger Corman

There were two practical reasons we moved to Venice. One was that there was an artists movement and a countercultural movement. Lots of people we might want to hire lived in the area. We also wanted to buy in a lower rent area that looked like it was going to be gentrified so that we could eventually sell the studio for more money. — Roger Corman

Horror films have been with us forever, so you can't say I originated that in any way, but it sort of brought back a classical way to make a horror film. — Roger Corman

Jim Cameron is proof that if you are good, you'll get promoted. — Roger Corman

When I started in the late 1950s, every film I made - no matter how low the budget - got a theatrical release. Today, less that 20-percent of our films get a theatrical release. — Roger Corman

I think the art film, or the auteur-driven film - and not only foreign, but domestic films following that path - can get a small share of the box office. And I think that small share may open up a little bit. — Roger Corman

I'm not going to shoot seven days a week. I think it's counterproductive. I think you're going to have people stumbling around after a couple of weeks. — Roger Corman

I think one of the reasons movies are the quintessential modern art form is that it is partially a business. The director needs a crew - the writer, the producer, etcetera - and to have that, he needs money. — Roger Corman

I've never made the film I wanted to make. No matter what happens, it never turns out exactly as I hoped. — Roger Corman