Sean Connery Quotes

It used to be the case that studio executives like Robert Evans, Darryl Zanuck, and David Selznick would put aside money for what they wanted to be great movies regardless of whether they would perform well with the box office.

I'm trying to work only with established, respected directors. I took a lot of bad scripts and worked for a lot of lazy directors, and it was discouraging to go to the screenings and see that the director had added nothing, the editor had added nothing, there was nothing to see.

Just because you've made a couple movies, you've done some good movies, you've been nominated for some Academy Awards, whatever, nobody's entitled. It's a business. If they don't see it, I can think they're wrong, but I'm not entitled to a $15 million budget to make a film.

Honestly, when you're making a movie, you never say, 'Oh, this one's going to suck and go straight to video.' When you're in it, you think you're doing the best work you can do. You're surrounded by people who are working hard. Everybody's hopeful.

I don't make movies because I think audiences will want to go see them.

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

I can count on one hand the directors who actually directed me.

What's so great about DreamWorks is that it's run by filmmakers who believe that if it's not broke, don't fix it.

I want to act for the rest of my life - and I also want to pursue directing. Watching Bill Condon direct 'Twilight' kind of made me think, 'OK yeah, I really want to do this now.' This idea that you can make an image in your head and be in full control of how it comes out - I thought that was really cool.

The truth is, we were sick of, every time we finished a movie, having to start all over again from nothing, going to a studio, pitching an idea, setting up a new office.

As a producer, it's your job to bang on the table and convince studio heads why great movies should be made.

Directing is monumentally complicated and it's a function of all the time you pay to it. I think it would be great to do a movie I'm not in, I could just eat Fritos and just say, 'yeah, it's good!' Some day.

To make great movies, there is an element of risk. You have to say, 'Well, I am going to make this film, and it is not really a sure thing.'

To shoot a conventional film means that you are always covering yourself. You are putting nets and, in a way, letting bad decisions take over.

It's nice when you're working in Hollywood and there's a movie you'd like to see that no one is making anymore. You make it yourself.

Box office success has never meant anything. I couldn't get a film made if I paid for it myself. So I'm not 'box office' and never have been, and that's never entered into my kind of mind set.

I'm not prejudiced about what type of movies I'm in, what form they take or whether they're studio or independent. I just want to make films that are going to be good. The main reason is not to make money, although at some points it's really difficult when you're broke.

I'd just as soon do a big-budget movie as an independent one.

I think you get in trouble if you make experimental big studio films.

I'm not in a race with anybody to make the biggest hit movie anymore. I am just trying to tell stories that I can stay interested in for the two years it takes me to supervise the writing and to direct them.

I'm a filmmaker; I want to make films. I don't want to sit in a hotel room waiting to make films, and I can control my thing in Denmark; I can make the film I want to make... of course, I have to write a good script, all that, but if I do my job, it will happen.

I make movies I want to see.

And in movies you must be a gambler. To produce films is to gamble.

For a film to be viable, it has to survive this process of scrutiny. I think most filmmakers have obsessive-compulsive tendencies and would be completely unemployable in any other job - so it's great to be able to channel your psychological anomalies into something productive and creative.

I don't make movies because I love to act. I make movies because I like to make movies, and I like to be a part of that process.