Samuel Fuller Quotes & Sayings

We have too many intellectuals who are afraid to use the pistol of common sense. — Samuel Fuller

Film is a battleground. — Samuel Fuller

Extending the language of film sometimes starts with just trying to show one true thing. — Samuel Fuller

If your first scene doesn't give you a hard on, throw it out! — Samuel Fuller

Heroes? Don't believe in them. — Samuel Fuller

When you're at the end of your rope, all you have to do is make one foot move out in front of the other. Just take the next step. That's all there is to it. — Samuel Fuller

Ninety-five per cent of films are born of frustration, of self despair, of ambition for survival, for money, for fattening bank accounts. Five per cent, maybe less, are made because a man has an idea, an idea which he must express. — Samuel Fuller

We got a right to climb out of the sewer and live like other people. We could start from scratch. Make every minute count twice for the one we lost. — Samuel Fuller

When I was making these damned pictures, I never knew about film noir. If you had asked me about it then, I probably would have pointed to something like Bill Wellman's The Ox Bow Incident, the best Western I ever saw and very much in the style of film noir I don't care if it's a mystery story, a Western, or the story of Julius Caesar. To me it's the emotion, the lies, the double-cross that defines what kind of drama it is. — Samuel Fuller

Mark Twain didn't psychoanalyze Huck Finn or Tom Sawyer. Dickens didn't put Oliver Twist on the couch because he was hungry! Good copy comes out of people, Johnny, not out of a lot of explanatory medical terms. — Samuel Fuller

A woman is just a script, but a cigar is a motion picture. — Samuel Fuller

When you're in the battlefield, survival is all there is. Death is the only great emotion. — Samuel Fuller

Surviving is the only glory in war. — Samuel Fuller

Life is in color, but black and white is more realistic. — Samuel Fuller

A film is like a battleground. It's love, hate, action, violence, death - In one word, emotions. — Samuel Fuller

If a story doesn't give you a hard-on in the first couple of scenes, throw it in the goddamned garbage. — Samuel Fuller

Being a hooker does not mean being evil. The same with a pick-pocket, or even a thief. You do what you do out of necessity. — Samuel Fuller

We'll build a democracy here, even if it's with Nazi bricks. — Samuel Fuller

We don't murder, we kill ... You don't murder animals, you kill them. — Samuel Fuller

There's a difference between a Nazi and a German. — Samuel Fuller

The creepy thing about battle is you always feel alone. — Samuel Fuller

Movement should be a counter, whether in action scenes or dialogue or whatever. It counters where your eye is going. This style thing, for me it's all fitted to the action, to the script, to the characters. — Samuel Fuller

Film is a battleground. Love, hate, violence, action, death ... In a word, emotion. — Samuel Fuller

You know how you smoke out a sniper? You send a guy out in the open, and you see if he gets shot. They thought that one up at West Point. — Samuel Fuller