Retrospective Appreciation Quotes

Maybe because I'm a child of the '80s, but for me, a sequel is a story that follows the previous one, and sometimes if you haven't seen the original, then you don't understand the second one. Like 'Back to the Future 2.' If you haven't seen the first one, you're not going to get anything out of 'Back to the Future 2.'

Contemporary Conservatism ... is like contemporary art, seldom much admired in its time; it only achieves acceptance and admiration in retrospect.

I've done a lot of bad movies, but my bad horror movies are the ones that people still find the good stuff in.

You know, I find it very strange when movies that I made that were just excoriated - I mean that I was just vilified for - are now looked at as classics.

An underexplored reason why nostalgic art is worthwhile is that it influences the way the past is remembered.

People would say, 'Boy, I really loved you in Ferris Bueller," and it would really aggravate me. I thought I was a one-trick pony, and people had seen the trick. Now that things have worked out and I've gone on to other things, I'm really pleased that people enjoy it.

I think it's a great tragedy of childhood that you only really appreciate it once it's done: it's very hard to feel appreciative of the gifts you have until you're gone.

People still come up to me and say, 'Hey, 'Teen Wolf!' 'Teen Wolf Too' closed a week after it opened. Where did they see it?

When 'Safe' came out, it was treated respectfully but kind of forgotten. Then, by the end of the '90s, it somehow made it onto all these best-of-the-decade lists.

I don't have a great story, but I love Boards of Canada. I didn't get into it when it was happening; I got into it later on.

I'm a child of the '80s, so like everyone else, I love all those classic, formative movies - 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off,' 'Pretty in Pink,' 'Sixteen Candles,' 'Dirty Dancing,' etc., with 'St. Elmo's Fire' and 'The Breakfast Club' existing on a separate, slightly higher plane.

'The Driver' wasn't commercially successful at the time, but when I was a teenager, I had no knowledge of that.

I'll run into somebody, and of all the movies I've done, they may say something about 'Back to the Future' or whatever, but then they make reference to 'Clue' very favorably.

I've made movies that nobody saw initially, and then, all the sudden, people over the years pick up on it. Like 'Spinal Tap' and 'Princess Bride.'

I've done some things that have been quite interesting, but as grateful as I am for having been on 'Dynasty,' it was just so cheesy. That's half the reason it was so much fun for people to watch, but it's not so fun to have to say those lines.

Big Star invented a vision of bohemian rock & roll cool that had nothing to do with New York, Los Angeles or London, which made them completely out of style in the 1970s, but also made them an inspiration to generations of weird Southern kids.

A lot of my movies have come to be thought about only years after the fact, and I'm sad about that but also happy about it in a way, as it's given them longevity.

When I did 'Mimic,' it was such a difficult experience to try to make. Believe it or not, I did try to make a really adult giant bug movie. And then, in the course of the process, it kind of died a horrible death and gave birth to the movie that exists now, which now, in retrospect, I like. But it's not the movie I set out to do.

I'm very proud of Space 1999. Its success paved the way for other sci-fi shows to follow. My hope is that the DVD release will help it reach a new generation of fans.

I love so-called movies that are bad movies, but 'Prometheus' is one of those movies that people are gonna come back around on in 20 years. There's gonna be midnight screenings of that thing.