Robert Altman Quotes

If you don't have a leg to stand on, you can't put your foot down.

I want to see something that I've never seen before, so how can I tell that actor what that is? I'm not trying to construct a document or situation that is what I want, because what I want is something new to me.

What is an ending? Theres no such thing. Death is the only ending.

I love fishing. You put that line in the water and you don't know what's on the other end. Your imagination is under there.

Maybe there's a chance to get back to grown-up films. Anything that uses humor and dramatic values to deal with human emotions and gets down to what people are to people.

Titanic I thought was the most dreadful piece of work I've ever seen in my entire life. Another film that I think is equally bad was American Beauty. So badly acted and directed. But people like that.

Wisdom and love have nothing to do with each other. Wisdom is staying alive, survival. You're wise if you don't stick your finger in the light plug. Love - you'll stick your finger in anything.

Men make clothes for the women they'd like to be with or in most cases the women they'd like to be.

Jazz has endured because it doesn't have a beginning or an ending. It's a moment.

The role of the director is to create a space where the actresses and actors can become more than they have ever been before, more than they have ever dreamed of being.

[From a May 1, 2004 article entitled "Still Up to Mischief" from The Guardian reporting on and quoting Altman]
Still, it's worth noting that by the age of 20 this whistle- blower had resisted two of the most powerful institutions - church and army, both. He is an atheist, 'And I have been against all of these wars ever since.

Filmmaking is a chance to live many lifetimes.

I'll give you the same advice I give my children: Never take advice from anybody.

I don't think screenplay writing is the same as writing - I mean, I think it's blueprinting.

I've had it-the agencies, the winking, the networks, the ratings. Anyone who thinks TV is an art medium is crazy-it's an advertising medium.

Your own ego is the only trap that I think you can fall into.

There was not a lot of dialogue. The titles were just to keep you up. It's the visual stimulation that hits the audience. That's the reason for film. Otherwise, we might as well turn the light out and call it radio.

Chance is another name that we give to our mistakes. And all of the best things in my films are mistakes.

All of my films deal with the same thing: striving, socially and culturally, to stay alive.

Words don't tell you what people are thinking. Rarely do we use words to really tell. We use words to sell people or to convince people or to make them admire us. It's all disguise. It's all hidden
a secret language.

The Oscar for the films, it'd be nice. But I don't make those kind of films, and I don't think that will ever happen.