I'm a frustrated would-be architect who stumbled into the would-be business of making movies.

Michael Cimino

Categorized in : Who Movies Making Business

I have a very simple definition of a good movie: a good movie makes you forget you're watching a movie.

good you simple forget

It's one of the things that movies do offer you, despite all of their hardships - they offer you moments of transcendence.

hardships movies you moments

All of those years, I felt like 'Heaven's Gate' was a beautiful, fantastically colored balloon tied to a string fastened to my wrist, so the balloon could never fly.

fly never beautiful heaven

Nobody lives without making mistakes.

lives mistakes nobody making-mistakes

'Deer Hunter' is a movie; it is not an attempt to write history.

hunter write deer history

War is war. Vietnam is no different from the Crusades.

vietnam crusades different war

They've said everything about me that they could: racist, Marxist, rightist, homophobic, sex change - I don't know what else they could come up with.

know me change sex

Even the details of a rifle, which are nothing but mechanical, if they are made carefully, with attention, become beautiful, satisfying.

nothing details attention beautiful

A film maker's energy and creativity don't have to end when he turns over his film.

over end creativity energy

I never second-guess myself.

second-guess never myself

Every great movie is about the people, even if it's a great popular success like 'Gone With the Wind.' It's really not about the Civil War. It's about Scarlett and Rhett. That's who you go to see. You're not going to root for the North or pull for the South, or, you know, it's the people you remember.

you success war people

I feel very, very upset that, when it came time for me to get an Academy Award, that I didn't especially thank Clint Eastwood.

award feel me time

Journalism is not writing.

journalism writing

I am not a preacher; I'm a reacher.

am i-am preacher

Making movies is controlled anarchy, chaos.

making movies anarchy chaos

I don't believe in defeat.

defeat believe

There have been so many false things written about me by people who don't know me.

things know me people

If you can't stop somebody from working and making movies that you hate, what's the next best thing? Destroy them personally.

movies best you hate

Because people don't see me around a lot, I'm the source of all sorts of rumour.

because see me people

There's nothing good that comes out of war. It's simply hell on earth, and people survive, and people don't.

good hell war people