Asif Kapadia Quotes

The best films come about through experimentation.

When I make a movie, I have both a specific and vague, amorphous dream idea of what the movie is going to be. Of course, I don't actually know what it's going to be, but I'm still striving to get to some place with it.

I think one of the privileges of being a filmmaker is the opportunity to remain a kind of perpetual student.

You definitely want to do the little films. They're always going to be harder, but you don't do them to make money. You do them so you can see what you can make with the research that you have.

Being an artist, it's all a journey, and you learn where the subtle patterns lie.

You become the movie you are making.

Making 'Coraline' was one of the great filmmaking experiences of my life.

I view every film as a commitment to undertake a long journey.

I think every movie changes me and is life changing, especially movies you direct.

Every movie I make teaches me something. That's why I keep making them.

Cinema has become my life. I don't mean a parallel world, I mean my life itself. I sometimes have the impression that the daily reality is simply there to provide material for my next film.

I'm finding things out about myself as a person - as a writer - as I write, and so are the people who listen to what I do. But they have this additional aspect of how they take the stuff that I do, and so it broadens the work, and it creates this strange connection.

You know as a director what you want, but the film is smarter than you, the film says no, the film says there's something more here.

Every movie has its uniqueness. You just do your best and go with it.

When I am shooting, I am inside the theatre, when I am in the editing room, I am inside the theatre. I always try to feel what they will feel. I see a film, not as a director, but as the audience. If I am entertained, they will be, too.

Sure, you always put some of your own experience into a film.

I do not make movies to send any message, but my treatment makes my viewers think on the subject.

I found it very difficult to explain to someone why you did a film. It's not like having a conversation.

When I'm working on a film, I think about how it will play with a tiny audience of friends whose opinions I respect - basically, a 40-bloc radius from my apartment in Manhattan.

Ultimately, it has been a struggle- but I was in Minneapolis and Austin a couple of weeks ago, sitting in theaters with complete strangers watching this weird movie that Kirk and I thought up and I was excited to be making film.

When you make a movie, you can only make the movie that you would want to see.

For me, with me, making a film is always about humanity.

A film has its own life and takes its own time.

I know the movies that I've liked, and I know the experience that they've given me, so the goal is always to try to create a movie that I would like myself and that would knock me out, challenge me or intrigue me in some way. That's been my criteria for figuring out what I want to do, or also when I'm writing something or creating a scene.

Their films would probably be better if they'd seen a few more films, which runs counter to this idiotic theory that you run the risk of being influenced if you see too much.