Roman Polanski Quotes

The torches ran off, and I found myself in a forest, at night, without any light, on skis, and that was not fun - particularly because I was drunk. Luckily at some point I started to see the light of the ski lift. To be in the forest in the middle of the night, it's terrible.

Cinema should make you forget you are sitting in a theater.

I don't really know what is shocking. When you tell the story of a man who is beheaded, you have to show how they cut off his head. If you don't, it's like telling a dirty joke and leaving out the punch line.

Why did Erich von Stronheim leave Germany? Why did Hitchcock leave England? If you were a director you'd like to work in Hollywood too. Now go ahead and ask me if I'm still Polish. You people keep asking me this question. You want Polish artists to make it in the world, but when they do, you accuse them of treason.

I like skiing, among other things, because I have moments when I am alone in the mountains. That's fantastic, when there's nobody around you. You see miles around you, and the sun is almost down .

If I had killed somebody, it wouldn't have had so much appeal to the press, you see? But f-ing, you see, and the young girls. Judges want to f- young girls. Juries want to f- young girls. Everyone wants to f- young girls!

I still had some honor ... I still have some now.

Whenever I get happy, I always have a terrible feeling.

I would rather live in a country where children are protected and their predators prosecuted, and even (which in Hollywood is evidently not always the same thing) disapproved of.

I did not have a reputation to defend.

The whole showmanship is NOT to answer every question.

I can only say that whatever my life and work have been, I'm not envious of anyone-and this is my biggest satisfaction.

I never made a film which fully satisfied me.

I sometimes cry in the moments that are not necessarily dramatic or tragic in the films, often because of the music. I wonder whether it's the music that has that effect on you in this film.

I admire actors for their infinite patience. That's why they need all those trailers and all their crowd of people who pamper them. But it is a drag to get up sometimes at 4:30 in the morning and get into makeup, and wait forever until they call you onto the set.

My films are the expression of momentary desires. I follow my instincts, but in a disciplined way.

I want people to go to the movies. I am the man of the spectacle. I'm playing.

I see Macbeth as a young, open-faced warrior, who is gradually sucked into a whirpool of events because of his ambition. When he meets the weird sisters and hears their prophecy, he's like the man who hopes to win a million - a gamble for high stakes.

I would love to make a film about aging that would take place before the war. It would follow the stages in the life of a woman who would not have at her disposal the resources of today like cosmetic surgery, creams and pills.

Every failure made me more confident. Because I wanted even more to achieve as revenge, to show that I could.

I don't know anyone who is not using drugs for the reason that they're illegal.

I simply think there's life after movies. I have to adhere to this philosophy, and therefore I like other things, and I have other passions. None are as big as movie-making, but they exist.

To the audience it doesn't really matter how much the director struggled with an actor. It's the result that counts.

When I really love a movie, I don't want to spoil it by too frequent visits. But I like to come back to certain films, which I admire.

I don't think that there would be more users if drugs were legalized.