Michael Mann Quotes

It's kind of the filmmaker's job to use visual, cinematic language in a way possible to tell a story that reaches and touches as many people as possible.

My goal is for 'Heavy Rain' to leave an imprint in you and change a little bit of who you are and how you see things. Maybe the key characters and key moments will leave a trace in you. If you don't have this ambition as a video-game creator, then maybe you should do something else, because this is what creation and art is about.

As a filmmaker, I want to bring some value, some thought in the mind of my audience. When I embark on the journey of storytelling, I am an explorer.

Ultimately when I throw myself behind a movie, I have to really believe in that director's vision.

I want to photograph what I see and put it in a dramatic context. I'm an actor and a writer, and I want to tell these stories and present these shapes, colors and movements as I see them, as I see them serve a narrative. As I see that narrative serve an audience. That's what I want to do.

When I worked on 2001 - which was my first feature film - I was deeply and permanently affected by the notion that a movie could be like a first-person experience.

Never in the history of cinema has a medium entertained an audience. It's what you do with the medium.

A short film is just another storytelling medium like TV, Features, and Webisodes. I am just thrilled that 'Silent Cargo' is getting out there for people to see.

I never leave a piece of theater that I love and say, 'That was a good point; They made a good point.' I leave, and I feel something.

In my theater, I'm not trying to change the world.

As a filmmaker, you want people to understand and get what you do, and it's a lot to ask for.

I want to create films that will speak to different parts of our hearts and brains, stories told from a different angle.

Film has its own innate poetry.

I don't make movies to make a point; I make movies to tell stories about people.

I have always believed that facilitating good, unusual content should be one of my prerogatives as someone who has spent half his life in cinema.

I think of all my movies as home movies! It's just that some are more expensive than others.

I want to make my kind of films but make them work commercially, too. When my presentation meets the director's imagination, the result will be great.

I make movies to be watched the way I want to watch them, and I want to watch them in movie theatres.

Whatever field you can do that, that's where you want to do it, and I think that's why people like David Fincher and Ridley Scott are interested in it, too, because when you sit down on a meeting in HBO and they're like, "More, more." You're just like, "Oh yeah, I love this." Sometimes it's a little harder in film. I think also it's a great audience, take advantage of it. It's a great audience.

Whether I'm directing live action or animation, my responsibility is the same. I have an audience sitting in a theater with their popcorn, and I've got to show them a good time and make them feel something.

I was commissioned in 2003 to create an original show, and began developing 'Upwake.' 'Upwake' tells the story of Zero, a modern-day business man, going to work with his life in a suitcase, stuck between dream and reality and not able to decipher the two. I wanted 'Upwake' to have the same audiovisual qualities as a movie would.

Every show I've ever, you know, produced, essentially it's the show I want to watch myself.

You always want your films to go as far as they can.

I think the same way about theatre, you go out there and you are creating a world for a moment that can actually have a real impact on people, present some kind of story that gives you something to think about when you walk away, feeling enriched - if it works out well.

I think it's important that we all try to give something to this medium, instead of just thinking about what is the most efficient way of telling a story or making an audience stay in a cinema.