Wim Wenders Quotes

I've been working a long time, and mostly European films.

I think in Europe, movies are made like a commodity and then sold as art.

I love European films in general. If I were to go to the movie store or something, that's what I like to see.

Whereas European films have traditionally been able to go into adult relationships. I think there's a huge audience in America for those kinds of films.

I make American films for American audiences and Asian films for Asian audiences.

I'm less comfortable making American movies because I don't know them so well.

I love European movies and I kind of grew up on European films.

Hollywood is a wonderful machine for making big movies. In France, we make smaller and more personal films, but if things keep changing, this will disappear. The industry in Italy is practically gone. Cinecitta now is used mostly by filmmakers from others places, like Martin Scorsese.

There's something that people misunderstand about screen quotas. It's not about rejecting or hating other countries' films, but about protecting our domestic film industry.

National film industries tend to move in cycles. In Australia right now, we're on a high, a feeling of potential, which as yet shows no sign of flagging. But the word 'industry' is misleading. A small national cinema has no industry in the Hollywood sense.

Audiences are more drawn in to what they can relate to, so it would be stupid not to have great Latino films for the Latino audience.

Back in the 1970s, it was mostly all-black audiences coming into the theaters. So, we presented stories they could relate to.

Of course, there's always one theater that shows some kind of European film. Now, fortunately, you have DVDs, so it's possible to get anything you want within a few hours. In those days, it was virtually impossible to get Italian films, or German films, or whatever. So I grew up with very standard, mainstream films.

The films I liked were European films - Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni, François Truffaut.

It's not simply that British films do well at the box office and generate revenue, it's that they provide a window to the world of what Britain and its culture is about.

We have to support our own films. If we don't, how can we expect others to support them?

I just worked with Sofia Coppola and that was amazing. I learned so much from her. I can't even describe how much fun I had.

Today films are made to cater to commercial markets created by multiplexes, not for those who enjoy good cinema.

Specificity is what makes good storytelling, and good storytelling is what makes money, and making money is then what encourages new producers to invest in different stories about Asians.

I wanted to make films that were culturally relevant in my own country, that challenged people, and that people talked about.

It's amazing how much you can absorb on a film set.

I'm not making films for middle aged journalists, who are mostly men. I make films that hopefully entertain people, where they can learn something about life.

I think indie films are really important, because they show the studios and the audiences when they see them, great stories. Really interesting, small stories.

For years all I seemed to be doing was lobbying politicians and others to persuade them that European culture needed movies, and that we had to protect it.

This is what the difference is between Hong Kong and Chinese cinema - Chinese cinema was made for their own communities. It was for propaganda. But Hong Kong made films to entertain, and they know how to communicate with international audiences.