James Wan Quotes

Films are a director's medium. We're all stemming from the director.

All the films I do, I write the scripts, I direct.

When you direct a movie, you're basically looking at a story, the way you want to look at it. You bring that director's vision, and I'm totally open for that.

The director is the only person who knows what the film is about.

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.

I'm not the kind of director who aims to send a message out.

I'm thinking about directing, but I know it's a lot of work and I appreciate what directors do and I would like to be good at it. The opportunity has presented itself four to five times, and I usually said no because of the script.

I don't like directing that much to want a career as a director for hire. I like to have as much creative control as possible.

Anyone who thinks Peter Jackson would fall for market forces around him rather than artistic integrity doesn't know the guy or the body of his work.

I think every movie is its own little world, and a director certainly sets the tone.

I honestly never wanted to direct. It was only when I started to work on 'Alexander the Great' that I realized I had to direct. I saw something so specifically in my mind, I could not leave it to someone else.

When you produce and direct, your movies are different to you. They're not just something you act in.

Now I'm kind of established as a director, I much prefer directing to writing.

Really, it's the director's job to disappear and allow the movie to just feel.

'The Lobster,' at some point, was my most accessible film. Then I made 'The Killing of a Sacred Deer,' which turned out to be not as accessible as 'The Lobster.' It was the film I wanted to make and the story I wanted to tell.

The thing is, as a film director, you're essentially alone: You have to tell a story primarily through pictures, and only you know the film you see in your head.

My responsibility is to make a film and find my dramatic language; I don't have any political or social responsibility.

I think Van Sant is the most important American director we have. He takes the most risks. He's just pure to me.

I had a philosophy, which may have been proven right, that directing isn't as hard as everyone says it is.

I've always said to people that auteurism is nice, but it's hypothetical, and gradually you learn how much or how little influence different directors had.

All the director wants is their idea of the movie to be believed in.

The truth is, when I started to make films, I was terrified. I had a huge difference in what I was writing in the screenplay and what was on the screen after. Sometimes there was a big gap. Now, the more I have experienced, the more I do movies, the more I feel that the dream is closer to the screen. It's coming with experience.

Some of my best experiences are with writer/directors. Guy Ritchie is one. I feel they have a clearer view of what they want to do. They haven't got to try and interpret someone's writing; it's all theirs. I really admire that.

When you look at a movie, you look at a director's thought process.

In feature films the director is God; in documentary films God is the director.