David Puttnam Quotes

When Americans shoot movies they aim at the entire planet. When the French make movies, they aim at Paris.

Britain has nurtured me and made me able to make movies that have travelled round the world.

I feel very lucky to be able to make movies in New Zealand, and I will always be grateful for the support I have received from so many New Zealanders.

It's a big problem for American movies that all their movies are produced to be global.

It's not simply that British films do well at the box office and generate revenue, it's that they provide a window to the world of what Britain and its culture is about.

I want to urge filmmakers in Bengal to choose a subject and mount the film in a way that there's a Bengali connect. They must not fall into the typical remake pattern.

It's something I want to do going forward - make a movie that is commercial and universal and will play in any movie theater or living room in the States or the UK, but is definitively Canadian. I don't think there's such a thing as prohibitively Canadian.

I want to be part of movies which set benchmarks for a new kind of cinema.

I've always said that, first and foremost, I make films for New Zealanders. They're my target audience. Then after that, if people appreciate my stories from outside this country, then that's an added bonus.

As a producer, it's your job to bang on the table and convince studio heads why great movies should be made.

It's always better to make a hero than lean on one. My goal is to emulate China in the filmmaking business, not Los Angeles.

As a rule, Michael Balcon was at great pains to ensure Ealing remained very British. There was no point our trying to be MGM, and we didn't see a lot of American stars.

Even if it flops, when you're sitting at the drawing table, you dream about seeing your work on the big screen, no matter what.

I wanted to make films, but the films being made in the 1990s were not my kind. I couldn't break in, and even if I did manage to get a foothold, I didn't know what I would make.

I would love to work for the Indian Film Fraternity if the role offered suits my sensibilities.

When I was young, I struggled with authorship: with everything the word meant and failed to mean. Irish poetry was heavy with custom. Sometimes at night, when I tried to write, a ghost hand seemed to hold mine. Where could my life, my language fit in?

If I wait for the great definitive story of my people to come around, I'm never going to work.

I see a lot of similarity between Bengali and Malayalam films regarding the basic emotions, the craftsmanship, art and performance. I also feel both the industries are very true to their art and culture.

I'm a filmmaker first, nothing else matters.

My dad was this pint-sized Nigerian with an oversized personality. My mother is a tall six foot something Irish-English woman. Us walking down the street was quite an unusual sight, when I was growing up.

With Marathi cinema, content is king. It has always been driven by content. I am lucky that I don't have to leave home to seek a job elsewhere. The industry is here at home.

I always wanted to direct a film.

I've given 'Bin Roye' everything, and I'm hoping that people enjoy something different coming from Pakistani cinema.

Our old stories happen to be your new stories. The stories that you're seeing as immigrant stories are your grandparents' stories, are your great-grandparents' stories. You just happen to be separated from them a little bit.

There have been moments where I laughed at my own family's culture, though it's hard to separate out whether something funny is cultural, or just my grandma specifically.