Rouben Mamoulian Quotes

A lot of more modern films seem to just be out for violence or sex or what have you, without relating it to what's going within human beings. But every now and then one comes along that does that, and it's a joy.

All fiction relies on the real world in the sense that we all take in the world through our five senses and we accumulate details, consciously or subconsciously. This accumulation of detail can be drawn on when you write fiction.

A film engages you emotionally and intellectually.

I'm very encouraged by millennials and their drive to make the world a better place.

I get satisfaction out of seeing stuff that makes real change in the real world. We need a lot more of that and a lot less abstract stuff.

The best movies have one sentence that they're exploring, a thesis, something that people can argue about over dinner afterward.

Film is the only language I speak, and I have been lucky to be involved in some great stories. You don't want to preach to people, but you want them to think about why things are the way they are, the history that is there as well as the possibilities.

People think that what I see diving must drive what I put into films, but that isn't really the case. When I am making a Hollywood production, I am telling a different kind of story. Of course, if I see something interesting that works, we will look at it, but they are different things.

There are just things you can explore in a movie that you can't in 22 minutes with a laugh track.

I've always had this idea that I wanted movies to make people better not worse.

Hollywood films are alienating to the spectator because they use too much dialogue, too much explication and leave no space for the viewer. They depress me.

And when you look at the Turtle's movie there is something there, definitely something there.

The best cinema is about ethics.

It was interesting to do a completely fictional piece. You know, Saving Private Ryan was not a fictional piece! So the challenge was: How do you incorporate real emotions? How do you incorporate aspects that people are going to be able to identify with?

In some ways, 'Mansfield Park' is 'Pride and Prejudice' turned inside out.

My stories are pretty simplistic, but the characters are always complex and always right, and that comes from the script and my research and reverse-engineering what I find in the real world.

I know that movies are basically meant to be entertainment, but I'm not that interested in entertainment.

Not all our movies have a social message, but I love the ones that do, and I'd love to do more of them.

Actors do all kinds of roles, but once in a while, we also want to do a meaningful film.

Films are never meant as solutions; they just provide entertainment value.

I'm not a politician. I'm somebody who knows the world can be better, and I'm willing to fight for it.

A lot of my favorite movies come from nuggets of truth.

The purpose of making a successful film is to blend entertainment with social content.

I love when you get the feeling of some social reality with a fictional film.

As an artist, even if you are putting out something really dark and disturbing, that's good because it's opening a discussion. Always in the back of my mind is this thought that the world has to be a better place with you in it.