Wong Kar-Wai Quotes

We love what we can't have, and we can't have what we love

I always think to shoot action scenes is not really about the stunts. It's more about an expression and about imagination.

Most of my films deal with people who are stuck in certain routines and habits that don't make them happy. They want to change, but they need something to push them. I think it's mostly love that causes them to break their routines and move on.

I'm not very aware of styles. We never talk about styles before we start shooting, or even during shooting, because I think the film will bring you there.

There are certain types of genres that are impossible in China. Ghost stories, something too graphic, too violent, and of course if it's too political. Other than that, it will be fine.

Sometimes, when you're on the streets, certain music inspires you, and then you have a vision. But, at the end of the day, it's a synthesis of visions, so you have to think, as a director, of a scene, or how to deliver a line, or how do this visually.

1936 is a very important year: a golden time for martial arts, right before the Japanese invasion.

I was born in Shanghai and moved to Hong Kong the year I was five.

In a way, this is what the difference is between Hong Kong and Chinese cinema - Chinese cinema was made for their own communities. It was for propaganda. But Hong Kong made films to entertain, and they know how to communicate with international audiences.

What makes international cinema so interesting is that each territory has its own sensibility. When you look at an Indian or French film, there's a certain flavor. And even though the language is different, if the film is successful, it has something very common and understandable.

My films are never about what Hong Kong is like, or anything approaching a realistic portrait, but what I think about Hong Kong and what I want it to be.

Some actors like encouragement. Some actors prefer to have pressure. And sometimes, for some actors, its better to give your comment by silence, because they are so skillful, so gifted, that they understand without talking too much.

My mother has a very big family in Shanghai, so I have, like, almost 40 cousins, so we stayed together all the time. So by the time I get to Hong Kong, I become the only child and the only one surrounded by adults, you know.

I never had a problem with genre because a genre actually is like a uniform - you put yourself into a certain uniform. But if you dress up in a police officer's uniform, it doesn't mean that you are an officer; it can mean something else.

Love is all a matter of timing. It's no good meeting the right person too soon or too late.

I think the martial arts tradition has a big influence on our generation - we all read these novels when we were very young.

During shooting, you have the idea, like, of this certain dress on this actress, but it's not to fit, so you have to make all of these alterations and modifications. So in a way, I build the characters with the cast, and it's sort of custom-made, the whole process, and then you have to make all of these adjustments.

Heritage is something martial-arts films don't often talk about.

What makes cinema so attractive, so fascinating is that it's not just a one plus one process. It's a chemistry between sounds, words, ideas and image.

I'm not afraid to delay the schedule to make sure that this is the film that I want, that this is the best that I can do at that point.

I never studied film formally at school, but as a kid, I spent most of my time in cinemas.