Joe Dante Quotes

I'm crazy about westerns. I need to do a western once in a while. It's like you know, eating bread, eating pasta, drinking wine. It's in my blood. I need it.

The period western doesn't have a lot to say to most people today.

I think there have been more movies in the Western genre than any other. I grew up watching those movies.

Nothing ever changes as far as Westerns are concerned. They are the same today as they were years ago.

I'm a big fan of period pieces, and I'm a big fan of the old-time westerns.

When I was 12, I decided I was only going to watch Westerns for a few months.

I loved Westerns for different reasons as an adult. It is not only our only native brand of storytelling - the only one that's not influenced by Europeans and not something that's done better by the French - but I also love the sensuality of the Western. The sights, sounds, and smell of a Western are very exciting.

I used to love American Westerns, growing up in Germany.

I watched a lot of old movies. Clint Eastwood movies, a lot of John Wayne films, a lot of movies that celebrated the region of where I lived.

Cowboy movies aren't supposed to be in vogue. I still like them. You know, I'm still out there pitching the hell out of them.

I'm really glad Westerns have had a revival. Hopefully our little resurgence will last a while.

Everyone keeps saying the western's dead, but it's not.

I've always been a fan of Westerns, but my favorite kind of Westerns mostly were Sam Peckinpah's Westerns, and they mainly took place in the West that was changing.

When I was a kid, I was always watching genre movies on TV.

I can't go to bed with John Wayne, so I do the next best thing: I go to bed with my girlfriend, who once met the great man. That's how much I love westerns.

People are always asking me why they don't make Westerns like they used to.

In my 30s, it wasn't cool to like Pauly Shore movies. It was cool to like them when they came out, then it wasn't cool.

I loved cowboy movies when I was a kid. When I was five years old, I was already wearing a cowboy hat and suit. When I grew up, I knew John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Kirk Douglas and so on.

I am inspired by both Japanese Samurai films, in particular the films of Kurosawa, and how they share the spirit of American Westerns, with the influences running in both directions, and including the 'Spaghetti Westerns' and films of Sam Peckinpah.

I never dreamed I would do Westerns.

I would very much like to make Westerns. I love Westerns. I've worked on many Westerns in my youth, in Spain and here, and I love working on them.

I haven't read hardly any Westerns, to tell you the truth.

The sights and sounds and smells, the whole genre of Westerns - I love them.

Westerns give people a chance to see wide-open spaces and life before technology took over.

My grandmother was a huge western fan. She'd have me watch with her. 'Shane,' 'Bonanza,' 'Duel in the Sun,' I saw them all with her. I used to watch them until the TV turned to snow.