A filmmaker has almost the same freedom as a novelist has when he buys himself some paper. Stanley Kubrick More Quotes by Stanley Kubrick More Quotes From Stanley Kubrick If it can be written, or thought, it can be filmed. Stanley Kubrick filmmakingfilm-directingdirectors In any case, once you're dealing on a nonverbal level, ambiguity is unavoidable. But it's the ambiguity of all art, of a fine piece of music or a painting - you don't need written instructions by the composer or painter accompanying such works to 'explain' them. “Explaining” them contributes nothing but a superficial 'cultural' value which has no value except for critics and teachers who have to earn a living. Stanley Kubrick teacherartneeds I don't like doing interviews. There is always the problem of being misquoted or, what's even worse, of being quoted exactly. Stanley Kubrick interviewsproblem I've never achieved spectacular success with a film. My reputation has grown slowly. I suppose you could say that I'm a successful filmmaker-in that a number of people speak well of me. But none of my films have received unanimously positive reviews, and none have done blockbuster business. Stanley Kubrick successfulnumbersmotivational I used and abused drugs and alcohol. When I stopped doing that it became a lot clearer that life goes from inside to giving as opposed to taking and destroying. Stanley Kubrick used-and-abusedalcoholgiving It's crazy how you can get yourself in a mess sometimes and not even be able to think about it with any sense and yet not be able to think about anything else. Stanley Kubrick ablecrazythinking If man merely sat back and thought about his impending termination, and his terrifying insignificance and aloneness in the cosmos, he would surely go mad, or succumb to a numbing sense of futility. Why, he might ask himself, should he bother to write a great symphony, or strive to make a living, or even to love another, when he is no more than a momentary microbe on a dust mote whirling through the unimaginable immensity of space? Stanley Kubrick symphonywritingmen Chess teaches you to control the initial excitement you feel when you see something that looks good and it trains you to think objectively when you're in trouble Stanley Kubrick learninglooksthinking Take a stress pill and think things over-- HAL in 2001 Stanley Kubrick pillsstressthinking From the very beginning, all of my films have divided the critics. Some have thought them wonderful, and others have found very little good to say. But subsequent critical opinion has always resulted in a very remarkable shift to the favorable. In one instance, the same critic who originally rapped the film has several years later put it on an all-time best list. But of course, the lasting and ultimately most important reputation of a film is not based on reviews, but on what, if anything, people say about it over the years, and on how much affection for it they have. Stanley Kubrick what-ifpeopleyears You either connect or you don't connect. It's not the end of the world. It's a movie. Stanley Kubrick end-of-the-worldendsworld Everything has changed, but the process of telling a story has not changed. It's like cavemen sitting around the fire; somebody's going to tell the story. Somebody is drawing on the wall. You're communicating. You're trying to learn and teach at the same time. You're your own student and you're your own teacher, but the process is of the communicating. Stanley Kubrick wallfireteacher There are few things more fundamentally encouraging and stimulating than seeing someone else die. Stanley Kubrick seeingdies It's a passion when you're doing it for other people and you're doing it for the people around you making the film and the people who are going to see the film, and the giving. When you start thinking about you doing it for some sort of self-gain, then I think it becomes an obsession. It becomes a negative experience. Stanley Kubrick thinking-about-youpassionself One man writes a novel. One man writes a symphony. It is essential that one man make a film. Stanley Kubrick symphonywritingmen The first really important book I read about filmmaking was The Film Technique by Pudovkin. This was some time before I had ever touched a movie camera and it opened my eyes to cutting and montage. Stanley Kubrick cuttingeyebook I haven't had one sexual thought since the court martial. Stanley Kubrick thoughtfulsexthinking A film is - or should be - more like music than like fiction. Stanley Kubrick independent-filmmakingfilm-directingdirectors The very meaninglessness of life forces man to create his own meaning. If it can be written or thought, it can be filmed. Stanley Kubrick lightdarknessmen Art consists of reshaping life but it does not create life, nor cause life. Stanley Kubrick causesdoeart
