Gillian Armstrong Quotes

It's a hard line to walk, man. Cause you know you want to make this movie, you want to make it dark and real, you want to show all this stuff but unfortunately you can't always do that.

I'll bet Shakespeare compromised himself a lot; anybody who's in the entertainment industry does to some extent.

I have to hope that my instincts will do the right thing, because I can't erase what I have done. And if I drew something first, then my paintings would be illustrations of drawings.

What a terrible world it would be if we only did films that were poster boards for political causes.

I love Michael Bay movies. I don't think I'd be selling out if I did one. I happen to like his movies. I think selling out is doing something you don't believe in, and you're doing it for a selfish purpose.

The first record I made, when I listen to it, I understand. I understand perfectly well why certain musicians were unhappy with me. I had to decide: was I unhappy with me? I liked it. If they didn't like it, it was on them.

If any artist abuses his audience as a means to any end, noble or ignoble, he better have a damn good reason for it.

It's not about choosing a specific genre; that's not how I go about deciding what movies to make.

I wouldn't say even that I'm a broadly political person. But on occasion, I have felt that I have no choice but to paint something with a strong moral stance.

I don't think one can write from a compromised moral position.

I don't think it's an artist's responsibility to be political all the time. I think your first responsibility as an artist is to make music that people will listen to and enjoy. However, I think that when you are able to say something that is moving and put it in a great song, then that is even better.

You can't expect to connect with everybody, and that's all right. The more I make films, I'm learning that you don't have to make films for everybody. A film can be made for a smaller group of people than that, and it still warrants an existence.

In my short career, I tend not to repeat myself. I have no interest in redoing something. Sometimes that makes people angry, and maybe it's not the best thing for me commercially. But it's the best thing for me artistically, and it's the best thing for my heart.

It is hard to separate the art from the artist.

I felt like I'd spent many years making excuses for my executives and making excuses for political candidates I was representing and their views, when some of those political views, in my mind, were very distasteful.

The reach of big-budget films is bigger, but I have always loved doing films that I believe in.

I'd like to be able to be like a director, like Richard Brooks, say. And be able to say, 'I did my best, and this is it, and there's nobody to blame but me.'

I would never make a film because I think it's going to be a box-office success.

My conscience won't allow me to do films I thought were bad but were going to make money.

In the Army, I grew up with this view that you're asked to do anything that is illegal or immoral or unethical, then that would be the point at which you have to consider resignation, and you'd be willing to do that.

I am not worried about people's expectations. I just want to get the film right.

Making a movie is such a huge commitment of emotion and time that I didn't want to be beholden to doing it for money.

I am thankful for the fact that the audience doesn't expect common, run-of-the-mill films from me. But the fact of the matter is that if the subject doesn't hit me hard enough, I will not do it.

You can't make a film for your personal satisfaction. That is why I detest the cinema of people like Mani Kaul.

For many of us, this is very painful, pulling the lever for someone many think odious. But please consider this: A vote for Donald Trump is not necessarily a vote for Donald Trump himself. It is a vote for those who will be affected by the results of this election. Not to vote is to vote. God will not hold us guiltless.