I have always believed in the teachings of Jesus as they are set down in the New Testament. I was raised in the Jewish faith but I have honestly never felt close to God in the synagogue and I have had occasions of great spiritual warmth from priests and others in the Church.

William Friedkin

Categorized in : Entertainment

Ive never seen a more terrifying film than 'The Bababook'. It will scare the hell out of you as it did me.

William Friedkin

hell scare film

But the audience is right. They're always, always right. You hear directors complain that the advertising was lousy, the distribution is no good, the date was wrong to open the film. I don't believe that. The audience is never wrong. Never.

William Friedkin

complaining believe directors

All of the films I have made, that I have chosen to make, are all about the thin line between good and evil. And also the thin line that exists in each and every one of us. That's what my films are about.

William Friedkin

lines film evil

When you go to a studio with something you want to make, or they come to you with something they want to make, more often than not, it's a tent pole. Not something one single person is really passionate about on a creative level.

William Friedkin

passionate levels creative

One of my themes is that there is good and evil in everyone. I was not out to make these guys heroes. I really don't believe in heroes. The best of people have a dark side and it's a constant struggle for the better side to survive and to thrive.

William Friedkin

struggle hero believe

I believe it's true that there's good and evil in everyone and it's a constant struggle to have your better angels prevail.

William Friedkin

angel struggle believe

Style is something that's extremely important, but it must grow naturally out of who and what you are and what the material calls for. It cannot be superimposed.

William Friedkin

halloween style important

I don't look back or analyze my films. I just make them. It's for... by William Friedkin

I don't look back or analyze my films. I just make them. It's for someone else to look at.

William Friedkin

film looks

Directing is a nice job. It's the best job for me. If i had to pay money to do it, I would do itIt's problematical. It's disapointing often. It's very challenging. It's frustrating as hell. It's extremely demanding and totally satisfying work. And if I wasn't doing this, I would have to do legitimate work for a living. There are guys out there really working for a living, cleaning streets or coal mining, teaching. Directing is playing. Acting.

William Friedkin

nice teaching jobs

Directing is a nice job. It's the best job for me. If I had to pay money to do it, I would do it... Directing is playing. Acting.

William Friedkin

best-job nice jobs

I tend to be attracted to characters who are up against a wall with very few alternatives. And the film then becomes an examination of how they cope with very few options. And that's, I guess, what interests me in terms of human behavior.

William Friedkin

wall alternatives character

There are films that I've made that I like a little bit more than the others. But the films that I mostly watch, and see over and over again, are not my own.

William Friedkin

film littles watches

Violence is not funny. by William Friedkin

Violence is not funny.

William Friedkin

violence

To me, the art of cinema is the same as the art of painting. The artist takes a 2D medium and gives you the illusion of depth. If you look at any of the great paintings, you have the illusion of depth. Which is part of the art. The same with the great movies.

William Friedkin

depth giving art

The only gay people who remain in the closet are those who choose to, who don't want to publicly declare their sexuality, which is true of heterosexual people as well. I don't walk around with a button or a T-shirt that says "I am a heterosexual." I don't think sexuality defines a person. It's one small part of who you are, in my view. You are many things, and I never felt that people were defined by their sexuality solely. Although God knows, as a minority, gay people have taken serious lumps for their sexual preferences. As has every minority.

William Friedkin

gay taken thinking

I had absolutely no focus as a kid. I never paid attention at school, I never went to college. Not because we were too poor; we were. But if I wanted to go to college, I would have found a way.

William Friedkin

college kids school

There are certain things that happen during the production of, I think, every film, that you didn't plan, and often it's better than what you did plan. There's the question of either going with it or not.

William Friedkin

film thinking

There is a thin line between the policeman and the criminal. The best cops are always crossed. The best cops are the ones who are able to think like criminals. But for a quirk of fate, they might have been criminals.

William Friedkin

fate lines thinking

None of the chase scenes that I did had any opticals. We had to do all of that physically. The first thing you have to do is see it in your mind's eye. You have to envision it. Imagine someone knitting a sweater or a scarf. They either have a pattern in front of them, or they see a pattern in their mind's eye. Then it's one stitch at a time. That's what shooting a chase is like.

William Friedkin

sweaters knitting eye

I'm not a fan of 3D. But I am a huge fan of digital imagery. Because it allows a filmmaker much more latitude to appreciate their own visions and dreams.

William Friedkin

appreciate vision dream