Ken Burns Quotes

I've watched 'Ringu' probably three or four times before writing the first draft of 'The Ring.' And then I'd seen 'Ringu 2' I think once.

When working on and writing a film, I'm often more of a sponge than other times, aware of what's going on around me.

We must be able to inspire. That's my goal in acting.

I love movies. Movies have influenced me as a writer.

Behind every writer stands a very large bookshelf.

When I wrote 'Hatchet,' I knew that I was not re-inventing the wheel. That was never my intention. My goal was to make an '80s-style slasher flick that actually holds up. Basically, I wanted to make the movie that I wanted to see and pay no mind to current trends or conventions.

I think I always have Woody Allen in mind whenever I'm creating anything. He's such a genius, and I think 'Annie Hall' is one of the greatest movies ever written.

Reading is how I became an actor because I didn't grow up in a house where there was an awareness of film or theater. I also grew up in a house full of teachers, so reading was big in our world.

As a writer, you look for inspiration wherever you can get it.

I enjoy acting, and I appreciate people who have passion about what they're doing and have a vision about the film they're trying to make.

Archives can be inspiring but overwhelming. You have to forget them - especially when the whole world has been knocking them off. Everyone shops the same flea markets.

Mani Ratnam is my biggest inspiration.

I have been a fan of movies from a very young age, and somehow, the magic of that - every single time I hear something or read something that could be made into a wonderful film or something somebody is asking me to be a part of - that connects. It just makes me feel like I'm going to be part of something magical again.

I love watching movies, and I'm very inspired by movies when it comes to songwriting!

What I love about research is when I'm having a bad day and I can't write, I'll just research some more, I'll learn some more and I'll have better command of the world of the film.

There's a lot of people I take stuff from, and it's mostly bad guys in movies.

Movies were the biggest influence on me when I was a kid.

Any fictional story will take things from real events.

A library is many things. It's a place to go, to get in out of the rain. It's a place to go if you want to sit and think. But particularly it is a place where books live, and where you can get in touch with other people, and other thoughts, through books. If you want to find out about something, the information is in the reference books---the dictionaries, the encyclopedias, the atlases. If you like to be told a story, the library is the place to go.

I'm not particularly inventive. If you left me in а room and told me to write a novel, I wouldn't be able to do it. But if you gave me two years in a public library around the corner, I could. It all comes from sort of mixing the true and the invented. I'm not a fabulist. I'm more of a reporter.

I think now I'm just excited to continue directing and find stories that inspire me and bring those to the screen.

I don't think there's anything really wrong with influence because I think that one can use another man's art as material either literally or just implying that they're doing that, without it representing a lack of a point of view.

I don't believe in originality in art. I think we exist on this earth to inspire each other, through our actions, through our deeds, and through who we are. We're always borrowing.

You know if I see a work that really I am very affected by and inspired by then it makes me want to try things with my work that maybe I hadn't considered trying before and I think that is the biggest complement that you can pay somebody.

There's a lot of thievery involved in writing. You're breaking into other people's spaces and other people's stories.