George Cukor Quotes

When you are acting, you are just one piece of the puzzle. You don't see how everything fits together. It feels like you have less authorship over the entire product. In directing, you take the entire picture into account, so you're challenged in a different way.

Being a director is almost like being another sort of character, but you're out of view.

I'd made these experimental films but I thought the major chore of a filmmaker was to relate to actors.

Directing, I get all kinds of inspiration. It's working with people. It's a lot more fun.

Acting requires emotional flexibility and demands, and directing is more cerebral and managerial and a tactical kind of thing.

John Boorman was the best director I've ever had.

The only actor-director I have worked with in my career is my brother in his film 'Dillagi,' and he got the best out of me.

As a director, you see something in someone; you know it's there, you just got to go get it. You do that with any actor. That's your job.

As a filmmaker, the only way that I understand how to make a film is holistically.

When I'm acting, I'm just worried about that piece of the pie, contributing to the whole. But when you're directing, you... get the vision out of your head and on the stage.

There's no way I see myself as a director. Direction is far too creative.

Different actors have different rhythms. My goal as a director is to let these guys get their best work out.

I love to choose the right actors. It's kind of a pleasure to work with them and watch them imbue your concepts that you write.

When I did 'Gilbert Grape,' Lasse Hallstrom let me be on the set with him and in the editing room and in the casting sessions and so on. And so I got a firsthand, rather intimate, high-pressure look at how to make a film.

I really loved making 'Love, Nina.' I was in every scene, which was amazing. Bloody hell, what a job!

I love being in front of the camera but I love the fact that I have more control as a producer.

I'd really love to watch David Lynch work, to be a fly on the wall.

And being an actor already means that working with cast as a director, I have a clear understanding of their position and that collaboration is great and useful.

People need to understand that whatever they see us saying on screen, we are not doing it on our own.

In order to make a film, you have to operate on many different levels, making all these different forms of expression converse, and so I just followed that intuition.

The wonderful thing about theater is that it has so many people involved in the creation of it. The worst thing about theater is that it has so many people involved in the creation of it. That dynamic is thrilling and challenging every time you make a show.

The concept of making a movie in which the director dictates is kind of exotic - and absolutely not truthful. Directing means allowing a great deal of collaboration and listening and having the ability to change your mind.

There are some movies you do for the character; there are some movies you do for the people.

There is always a collaboration between the director and the actors, and you always have to listen as the actors have to listen to you as a director. In the end, you as a director, of course, are the captain on the ship.

I am interested in all aspects of filmmaking, so I have an opinion on every aspect, so sound design, score, cinematography, editing - all that stuff I have experience doing myself, so I had a very strong idea of what I wanted, and I got, for the most part, people that were able to articulate that idea, which was nice.