Movie Directing Quotes & Sayings

I relieve myself from the rigours of directing by casting the movie correctly. — John Huston

It doesn't matter who's directing, or who's doing the movie; there are a ton of things that can go wrong, and they do all the time. So you just have to figure out how to get through it, and then how the director finally puts it together, and then see what the audience takes from it. That's the most important thing to me. — Rutger Hauer

I mean time management is a big factor in my life. I'm a very organized person. You can only do one thing at a time, so that's the main way I do everything. When I'm with my kids, I'm with my kids. When I'm directing a movie, I'm directing a movie. When I'm making Magic Mike, I'm making Magic Mike. So you just really have to fragment and focus. — Elizabeth Banks

I still don't know much about directing a movie. — Jason Alexander

One day I decided to move towards documentaries or to move to more directing in documentaries at this point in my career. Why documentaries? I also love fiction. I would love to direct a fiction movie as well. But I think where I come from, reality is so interesting and has in it so many good stories to tell, this is why I'm doing that. I'm enjoying that. — Dror Moreh

We often hear of a male director directing a great indie and immediately being offered the next huge comic book movie. Rarely, if ever, does this happen to a woman. — Lesli Linka Glatter

Shooting at Quentin Tarantino movie was like a masterclass in directing. Although I went back literally right into rehearsal, started shooting ... while I was doing it I had to write my Grindhouse trailer and I added two days of shooting. My brother was producing Hostel and the Grindhouse trailer and I was like: "Gabe, just figure this out!" — Eli Roth

There's nobody who loves being around actors working more than David Mamet, especially actors bringing his tremendous dialogue to life. I've never seen a movie director who was happier to be directing a movie than Dave. — Clark Gregg

I will never become a director or a movie producer. I was always looking at picture directing because I didn't know what to do! You can't be a movie director without real preparation. — Liam Neeson

Writing a novel is a lot like directing a movie because you are creating a world and a tone, you are creating a large canvas and all the details. — Stephen Chbosky

Good directing is about getting the performance to be just what's right for the movie. — Roland Joffe

I've never seen a movie director who was happier to be directing a movie than Dave [Mamet]. His sets, everyone who's ever been involved with one of them will tell you of the funnest, funniest sets you can be on. — Clark Gregg

I found out it is just as hard to make a movie that you are not proud of as it is to make one you love. — Craig Ferguson

Having to act like an adult because I was directing a big movie but also feeling like a child because we had reindeer and big cameras and they had fake snow. I just wanted to go play in the snow. — Todd Strauss-Schulson

I liked Vittorio De Sica a lot, and I got to work with him once in a segment movie. He was a great director. He was a very charismatic character and a guy I watched a lot when he was directing. — Clint Eastwood

Well, actors get very frustrated with giving control to other people. They have their own ideas and wants for their characters. Warren Beatty once told me that he thought actors ended up directing out of frustration. If you have a strong sense of how to communicate a film, you should direct. The problem is that it is a huge commitment. I'd rather direct a play than a film due to the time. A movie can tie you up for a year or more. — Alec Baldwin

I think it's cool when Scorsese will pop up in a movie or something like that. I never want to make a career out of that or anything. I like directing. That's my favorite thing. — Jody Hill

It was really an experience, being my first time directing a movie. The scenes that I was in, Brooke really directed me all the time. And the scenes that both of us were in, Brooke directed those. Come to think of it, Brooke directed most of the scenes. — Tony Shalhoub

I think the older that I'm getting, the more I'm understand what a privileged job I have, and what an opportunity I have. Now I'm directing films and I'm getting my first movie in America off the ground, and you start to understand how the system really works. — Paddy Considine

Directing is a reactionary job more than a creation job. The job is to react whether it's moment one, the first time you read the script or see an article or read a book or notice something happen on the street and have an idea for a movie, and it just continues from there on in. You're just reacting to dialogue, a performance, an audition, a headache, a piece of furniture, a piece of clothing. — Jason Reitman

When you're shooting a low-budget movie you're never just the director: you're also in the catering department, and hair and make-up and a part-time grip. I can't even imagine the luxury of not having to keep an eye on every aspect of production while directing. — Amber Sealey

In a daydream sort of way, I think it would be pretty cool to direct a movie. But I have been on movie and TV sets and know it is hard work. I like directing it in my mind. It is easier. — Michael Connelly

Directing is monumentally complicated and it's a function of all the time you pay to it. I think it would be great to do a movie I'm not in, I could just eat Fritos and just say, 'yeah, it's good!' Some day. — Ben Affleck

What really helps a guy to become an action hero today is the directing of the movie. All those fast cuts. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

I learned a lot, in terms of inspiring people. It became very clear to me, very early on, that directing a movie was a lot like being in a theater company. — Matthew Lillard

Much of directing [a movie] is not directing but just listening and being present in the moment and just keeping your eyes open. — Rian Johnson

If I were directing a movie, it would scare me. — Seth Rogen

For me, directing is like writing with meat. I can write live, in real time, and change things and be confident that I'm helping the movie. — David Ayer

I can't sit on my bum very long in a movie theater seat, and when I'm directing, I always want to move the camera or edit. — Tony Scott

Casting is really a black art. It's a huge part of directing and it's the most invisible. It's one that people don't really think about or talk about. But you can really destroy your movie by casting it badly before you've shot a foot of film. And yet there are no guidebooks for it, there's no rule book to tell you how to do it. It's all your own experience and your own sensibility and your own intuition. — David Cronenberg

I love movie-making. I'm interested in writing and directing, and I've dabbled, but I haven't done anything I care to brag about. Yet. — Adam Brody

I was joking with my mom that all Jewish mothers now will want their kids to be filmmakers instead of doctors. Because you can make one film, and suddenly you're directing a 'Jurassic Park' movie. — Colin Trevorrow

I believe the important part of directing really is finding the right people for the right roles. Sometimes you go for what's expected, and sometimes you go against type because you think that'll really bring something different to the movie. — Renny Harlin

When I get hired as an actor as opposed to a writer, one of things that's exciting for me is doing stuff I wouldn't normally do myself. So whether it's a kid's movie or a voice in animation or in this case - where I just get to be silly, it's a different kind of comedy for me. As a performer, it's a different pleasure than when you're writing or directing. As a performer, you're just in the hands of the director and you go with whatever they want to do. — Stephen Merchant

We always for better or worse try to put on paper what's going up on screen - whether we're directing it or not. It's really just an extension of that habit which is trying to tell the reader what the movie will look like. Ultimately that is the job of a screenwriter to a certain extent. — John Francis Daley

Without a great man writing and directing for me, I realised I was a mediocre movie star at best. — Diane Keaton

There is a magic factor that is sometimes on a movie set, that is a really, really beautiful thing that cannot be compared to anything else, if you are somebody that is really passionate about acting or directing or the world of movies. — Penelope Cruz

I love being a part of storytelling, so whether I'm getting to do that on Survivor, or do it through kids' adventure books, or directing a movie, it's all sort of the same: Once Upon a Time ... — Jeff Probst

Yeah, it was always a low-budget passion project. It's my directing debut. I've always wanted to make an improv movie because I have so much experience in it, but it's not a big studio movie. It was an experiment that turned out better than I thought. — Matt Walsh

I did a good bit of episodic television directing, but directing a movie is so much more complicated. And there's so much more responsibility because the medium is very much a director's medium. Television is much more of a producer's writer's medium so a lot of the time when you're directing a television show they have a color palette on set or a visual style and dynamic that's already been predetermined and you just kind of have to follow the rules. — Jason Bateman

After directing movies, I respect any director in this world, because making a movie as a director is tons and tons of work. — Jordi Molla

Making a movie and not directing the little moments is like drinking a soda and leaving the little slurp puddle for someone else. — Steven Spielberg

Producers don't like the director who ignores their opinion - but I always try not to be the nicest person when making a movie. It's easy to do that. Just say 'Yes sir', Alright', 'Okay' - but they're not seeing the movie because if they can, they should be directing the movie. — Ryuhei Kitamura

Being a father is like directing Alien or Invasion of the Body Snatchers. It's much more difficult than directing an episode of TV. Also, directing a show or movie lasts a few months at most, parenting lasts for decades. — Misha Collins

Directing a movie is serious, it's not a joke. — Fred Durst

I usually don't like to talk about money, but I talk about the movie, and the other aspects of directing, etc. — Tommy Wiseau

Movie directing is a perfect refuge for the mediocre. — Orson Welles

Directing is a big responsibility to take on. I think I'm only good at doing things I know very well. I don't direct movies because I get offered the new vampire movie or science fiction movie. I don't get offered those, anyway, but if I did, I would just tell 'em, "Look, I'm the wrong guy." I only do things about people and situations, and I do the ones that I think I'm the best guy for the job on, which is usually something I generate myself. — Billy Bob Thornton

Directing a movie is the greatest job in the world. I could not be more envious of the guys who get to do it all the time. — Jason Bateman

Making a movie is universal. Directing a movie is universal; it's a universal language. — Morten Tyldum

Directing a movie is a little bit like being back in student government and putting on the homecoming dance. You're like, 'You put up the streamers, and you hire the DJ, and you get the punch bowl.' Some people are just like, 'This dance sucks.' And you're like, 'No no, this dance is awesome!' You have to be really positive. — Mike Birbiglia

I'm thinking, this is Robert Redford. You know, he's won an Academy Award, he's talking to me about directing a movie he's in. So you just think that it's Hollywood stuff or whatever. — Barry Levinson

I would have to say the most challenging thing about directing is the sheer stamina because ... as a director, you're always doing something. Someone always needs to talk to you. There are always decisions to be made and every day for as long as the movie goes on. So it's a marathon ... You don't have to look nice, but it's all day every day. — Michael Urie

It's really fun to go back and forth from acting projects to directing projects. You don't have as much responsibility when you're acting, but you have more fun. But then you miss having that responsibility, and so you go back and torture yourself and make a movie. — Katie Aselton

I took all my TV experience and what I learned about - by writing and directing and bringing a movie to Sundance - about the realities of the independent film market: 'Transparent' is the marriage of those two situations. — Jill Soloway

With a good script a good director can produce a masterpiece; with the same script a mediocre director can make a passable film. But with a bad script even a good director can't possibly make a good film. For truly cinematic expression, the camera and the microphone must be able to cross both fire and water. That is what makes a real movie. The script must be something that has the power to do this. — Akira Kurosawa

Directing is the last frontier for women in the movie business. We are studio heads, we are producers and we are writers, but we are not directors in any numbers. — Lynda Obst

Directing is like guitar playing. That's a unique mind-set and talent, unto itself. I like the idea of putting everything together to make a great movie. — Slash

I had the opportunity to work with Aliens and Predators when Resident Evil 2 was being made and it was for two different studios. It was for Fox and Sony. They don't care about one another. They just want their movies. So it was very difficult to delay one and ... So I had to make a very painful decision to kind of step away from directing the second movie and with the third movie it was the same. — Paul W. S. Anderson

When I met Peter Weir, we did a movie called 'Master and Commander' together, and that's when I really started to understand the power of acting, the power of directing, finding the emotion in performance. — Robert Stromberg

I dont work weekends. Weekends are for my kids. And I have dinner at home every night when Im not physically directing a movie - I get home by six. I put the kids to bed and tell them stories and take them to school the next morning. I work basically from 9.30 to 5.30 and Im strict about that. — Steven Spielberg

I look at the script first and who's directing it and then talk to the director to find out what his vision of the movie is and if it matches my vision and then we go after it. — Frank Grillo

I learned my business in the theater and in television, particularly working with the actors. You can learn much more in the theater than directing a movie, because then you have no time when you are shooting a movie to really work with the actors. You have to learn this craft somewhere else. — Michael Haneke

I went through a phase where I was sick of acting, I didn't want to do it anymore, I was bored with it and then I tried directing a movie and I was like: "Shoot, get back over there!" It made me appreciate acting more. — Tina Fey

I always loved silent movies. I was not a specialist, but I loved them. And when I started directing, I became really fascinated by the format - how it works, the device of the silent movie. It's not the same form of expression as a talkie. The lack of sounds makes you participate in the storytelling. — Michel Hazanavicius

As a storyteller, when you're writing a movie and when you're directing, you want to keep people entertained. That's the whole point, right? It has to be entertaining. — Fede Alvarez

Directing a movie precludes me from being involved in any greater way. But, the job was never to do more, it was always to enable. Sometimes as a producer, you're creating and writing it, or sometimes you're writing and directing it, or other times you're there from the very beginning. — J.J. Abrams

I don't believe in doing thousands of cuts, then giving it to the editor to make the movie. 'Dump-truck directing' is my reference to that style of moviemaking. You have to know how to cut before you can shoot well. The lack of definition in movies today is appalling. Very few people know how to mount a narrative anymore. If a scene works in one cut, you don't need 10. Or it might need 10. Let's not make it 20. — Gordon Willis