Jane Campion Quotes

I don't want to do things because it will please other people. I'm not doing this to get fame or any attention. I try to be selective about who I get advice from. I would like to contribute to the art world, but, you know, you can't plan these things.

The writer must earn money in order to be able to live and to write, but he must by no means live and write for the purpose of making money.

Love the art in yourself and not yourself in the art.

In the whole course of our work at the theatre we have been, I may say, drenched with advice by friendly people who for years gave us the reasons why we did not succeed... All their advice, or at least some of it, might have been good if we had wanted to make money, to make a common place of amusement.

I've never made a movie to make money. I've never made a painting to make money.

I've never done work for money ever. If your choices are based on grosses and the film doesn't do well, what does that mean? It leaves you with nothing.

Today a picture has value if it makes a lot of money. Myself, I declare I want to make a picture to lose money. Really! I want to lose money.

I didn't become an actor to make money. And I didn't become an actor to be famous - though people always gasp if you say that, as if it's unfathomable that an actor doesn't want to be a star.

A very wise author once said that a writer writes for himself, and then publishes for money. I write for myself and publish just for the reader.

Putting out commercial pieces and promoting them and trying to sell them to people is not necessarily what it means to be an artist.

I don't make films to win prizes. I make films to make films.

When I write, I write for myself, and I have high expectations... so I'm just trying to meet those. I'm not going to distract myself with other people's expectations.

I don't do any art to please any people.

It's not the job of the art to accommodate me and make me more money, make me more famous and get me more girls.

I never wanted to impress anyone nor had to complete my education just so that my parents could allow me to pursue music.

I was never writing for commercial success. It's nice that it has come, but it is not important.

The rule I stand by as an artist is definitely be yourself, and don't make music just for other people: make it for you first.

My work is trying to at least define myself on my own terms, and then if other people enjoy things that's a lovely addition.

The whole duty of a writer is to please and satisfy himself, and the true writer always plays to an audience of one.

The most common ego identifications have to do with possessions, the work you do, social status and recognition, knowledge and education, physical appearance, special abilities, relationships, person and family history, belief systems, and often nationalistic, racial, religious, and other collective identifications. None of these is you.

I've never been driven by box office.

My films really have to be a part of a whole body of work that says something to me.

I don't really do anything that isn't about writing, and I don't really know who I am if I'm not thinking about writing.

You have to remain strong. That's the kind of filmmaker I want to encourage. Orson Welles was the one who said, you know, you can learn anything you need to know about filmmaking- that's camera, sound, celluloid, video at this point- in four hours. It has nothing to do with anything. It has nothing to do with it... It has to do with what you want to say. If you feel you have something to say, you'll find that way to get it said, on film, and not let anyone or anything chip away at that or tarnish it, because it's something special and precious.

I don't know that I ever wanted greatness, on its own. It seems rather like wanting to be an engineer, rather than wanting to design something--or wanting to be a writer, rather than wanting to write. It should be a by-product, not a thing in itself. Otherwise, it's just an ego trip.