Sydney Pollack Quotes

There are not that many people in the movies today that really make me go out and buy a movie ticket.

In the entertainment industry all that anybody wants to do whether it's music or stories or dancing or comedy or whatever, they want to entertain the public. And they do it any way they can. Sometimes they concentrate simply on entertaining people and they don't care what message they are giving.

Hollywood has lost an enormous amount of quality.

Minority views expressed in films simply don't sell tickets.

I know doing movies is where I need to be. That's where my audience wants to see me.

I don't want to choose between commercial and independent cinema. I just want to choose between a good film and a bad film.

If you want to show cinema, make entertainment films. Sometimes they are very good, sometimes very bad, but the intention is always to make entertaining films.

The way you set up for a sequel is by having a successful film. The focus is on making a successful film, and making a film that travels around the world, and that people enjoy and have fun with, and that people are able to escape with.

I think films would get a lot better if people paid leaving the cinema. There's a whole business plan of opening terrible films in hundreds of cinemas and then closing them when the word of mouth gets out.

It's almost a standard tactic, really, to try to minimize any effort that people in the entertainment business or in any public occupation make to express themselves.

Hollywood is a cottage industry involving a very small number of people, and around the edges are enormous numbers of people trying to get into it and work.

We typically make movies that are geared towards 18-year-olds. The people who pay and go to movies more than two or three times are usually under 22, so I get how it works. I don't really want 18-year-old boys to find me that attractive, that kind of would creep me out at this stage.

Most movies are not very good. Most people know it and like to see them anyway.

My films ought to be judged on whether they're entertaining or good as films, but not on the political view necessarily. I'm trying to be morally responsible and no more. I don't have an agenda I'm trying to push.

If people are willing to buy it and listen to it and they like it and enjoy it, then it's viable.

Unfortunately, you're helpless when people interpret your work wrongly. There are simply people who can't or won't understand or accept what you're trying to do. When you take the risk of expressing yourself in public, you have to open yourself to that possibility.

When you think about it there's never really been a realistic exposition of Hollywood, I mean - from the inside - showing Hollywood what it can do, what it has done, to people.

When people see what real 3D looks like, they'll go, "Oh, that's why I spend an extra $5 a cinema ticket. That's worth it!"

Even a low-budget film costs way more money than a high-priced record. So, it's mo' money, mo' problems. When you have more money, it just creates more people trying to get involved and you have more trouble.

There's no way you can grow an economy with that, with that many people not working and not paying taxes, you can have any kind of government solvency, you can't have any kind of growing economy, which is exactly what the Democrats want, by the way. Much better for the Democrats that you don't work. The more you work, the less dependent on them you are. If this sounds hideous, I'm sorry, it's true.

We live in a silly time, and people go to the movies to see something that they haven't seen before, and you have to promise to show them that. In a horrible way, you have to promise them a special effect.

You make a movie to entertain audiences. That's why you make a movie. The product sales is because people love the characters, and to me, that is a testament to how our movie has become so ingrained in family's homes all around the world and that's why I make movies.

I'm not scared of doing movies that are just about entertainment. I'm not scared of doing movies that are really challenging and cover difficult terrain. I just want good experiences and I want to challenge myself and I want to just keep learning, as an actor.

The audience doesn't care that most of happened. They just want a good movie.

So the Lincoln movie gets trashed because Connecticut voted for the amendment - not to mention how the people in Connecticut feel - but there's a lot of that. And I think it precedes from a fundamental misunderstanding of cinema. They are entertainment. And I'd like to say that entertainment isn't a synonym for disposable or mindless or stupid. Hamlet? Pretty entertaining from where I come from.