Akira Kurosawa Quotes

Film is a collaborative process, absolutely, but I am a control freak.

Anything you can imagine, you can put on film.

Films are not mathematics - that's the first thing you need to understand. At least, that's how I feel. They are not words on paper. Films are made with people, with teams and with individual bundles of creativity coming together to fulfill the vision of an individual who is the director of the film.

I knew that I'd end up directing because I'm so hands-on with my films.

There are no great scripts - just great films.

It's possible for me to make a bad movie out of a good script, but I can't make a good movie from a bad script.

Films are a director's medium. We're all stemming from the director.

For me, it's important that the script is good. Then a good director will want to make it.

I'm a big fan of the Pixar movies, and Ed Catmull, who wrote a book about his experiences producing them, talks about how it takes three or four years to get it right.

I have great people surrounding me and helping me out. I'm totally in love with directing movies and I hope to do more of it.

You can have a great script, or a great director and a bad script, and get a great movie. Nothing really guarantees anything.

A great movie evolves when everybody has the same vision in their heads.

All the director wants is their idea of the movie to be believed in.

I definitely managed to do different kinds of things. My focus is usually who the director is, because at the end of the day the director is the storyteller, what the movie is all about. I don't want to participate in something that I don't think is constructive storytelling.

I want to make movies that I want to see, and what I miss and I'm not seeing.

Movies are collaborative, and that's part of what makes it a great experience. They're different from a lot of other art forms, but also it makes it seem like when you see the final product, you go, 'I wouldn't have done that. I wouldn't have done this.'

I don't care about names attached to the script. That doesn't matter to me. All things being equal, I would like to work with a good script with a good director, and the part I play is of less important than those two factors.

I think you should make movies as long as the story dictates.

A good project but a poor director will always make a mediocre film, but an average script and good director can make a good film, as he will put in everything to make the film look good.

I think that whenever there's a good script we try to make that happen, but it's all based off of a good story, a good script, but I don't believe you should do it just because it's African-American.

It slightly depends on your perspective, sort of how you look at these things, but when I sit down to write a script, I'm not planning to write a script; I'm planning to make a film, and so I only see the script as being just a step there.

If I get a note on my script or my films, what I say to a studio executive is that, 'You know, this is the film of my legacy, and I never want to be sitting in a theater looking up on the screen and seeing something that I don't believe in.' I will never do that.

If you are making a record, you are the one saying 'action', and you are the one saying 'cut,' and you have to be sure that the most interesting thing is not going on outside the frame.

I will work with a director who has good material because at the end of the day, that's what counts.

To me, the director is the most important, rather than the story.