Roger Deakins Quotes

At first, I wasn't sure whether I'd be a critic or a filmmaker, but I knew it would be something like that.

I come from a family where my father is a filmmaker and professor of film.

I didn't know any actors growing up. My dad was a builder, and we didn't know any arty types.

A lot of people want to make films and do photography and things, but I'm quite happy doing what I'm doing.

I wasn't looking to get into TV. My family was in the movie business, so I was never interested in that world.

After I left college, I went to work at the Royal Opera House in London, which became a real catalyst for me because it made me realize that I was interested in cinema and in the way life is thrust at you. So I started making films.

It was my dad who encouraged me to come into films.

I don't want to be an editor - I want to be really forward about that. I would be a horrible editor.

I want to read books and go for walks and make dinner. I guess there are people who love working and that's great. I'm not one of them. I love tackling roles and I love theater, but filming, I don't get it. It seems mind-numbing to me.

I was in college, and very disappointed. I majored in commercial art and interior design for three or four years. At that time, it seemed the thing I really wanted to do, production design, just wasn't available in the U.K., so I turned to music.

I thought that making movies was drab. I'd lived through that. And I didn't want to use my parents, ever... They didn't want to push me into this business.

I think an education is beneficial, but whether it takes an education to be successful in the arts is a whole other question.

I don't have good business sense. You never get much money for the arts. But I like independence. I like to grow.

I decided in my late teens that I wanted to be an actor, and my dad and I agreed that films were better. I work alongside my dad, you see. I've thought that films were better since I was a kid.

I didn't dream about being a director. I didn't know I wanted to do something with film until the summer between my sophomore and junior years at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia.

And I think that's why I was going to be a musician. I was very rebellious. And I didn't want to be an actor. My father used to say to me you should be an actor if you want to be in the arts.

I don't think the people wanna see me play Clyde Johnson the architect.

When I was a teenager, my dad watched my films and told me I could go to art college and study animation. He made me see that I could do this for a living.

I had to work out where I was going, what type of films I wanted to make. For that reason, I decided to choose independent productions, less important roles, and I tried theater, too.

Watching my stepfather and mother working in the industry - acting and composing - and seeing firsthand how difficult it is to achieve a successful career in the theater, I thought it might be safer to go to art school with the aim of becoming a painter.

My dad was a jingle writer, and my mom was a jewelry designer and musician.

I don't think anyone can really make up their mind and say, Now I'm going to be a director.

My parents always knew that I loved music. They just didn't think I'd try to make it a career. They thought I'd be a painter or an art teacher or something like that.

I certainly was an actor and then I drifted more towards writing and directing.

I had no plans to be a director.