John Milius Quotes

There is a certain kind of respect for authenticity today that there wasn't back in the days when they did 'Cleopatra,' where everything looked like a giant motel. People want to have it be authentic in the look, and authentic in the way people behave.

I've always had trouble with authority.

A lot of directors don't know what they want to do. Every director I've seen that was a good director that I've admired knew exactly what he wanted to do. They didn't sit there and think about it.

The filmmakers always have a great level of control.

I also thought of myself as the Sonny Barger of the film industry.

I may not be the strongest guy or the most well armed, but you can put me in a room with a pencil and a piece of paper and I can kill anybody.

Matter of fact, the style that people use today, I invented in a way.

I find that screenwriting is at best kind of a hackwork in some ways.

Films are always pretentious. There's nothing more pretentious than a filmmaker.

I felt that the Star Wars series became very pretentious as time went on. Just heavy and leaden.

I'm the barbarian of Hollywood.

Yeah, I think that's it ... It's like Jesse James. He became really popular because he lasted so long. You know, there is some degree of truth to the fact that time will dignify anything, too.

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.

I became a loner. I became a mountain man. A lot of those things are very good qualities and they help you do your work, help you be singular and keep the artistic integrity of your work intact, but they don't make it very easy to live your life.

I've always been able to survive by writing, though.

I think Francis at half form is better than anybody else by 50%, you know? I think it's just that he has never ... he has a late pick of the things that are ambitious enough for him.

You never know when you're going to be considered un-hip ... The people that really pass judgment on you really have nothing to do with what you do, usually.

I suppose when I started out I would have liked to have been the darling of critics or something, but everybody wants to be loved and admired.