Brian De Palma Quotes

And I always had this idea for making a movie about a femme fatale, because I like these characters. They're a lot of fun, they're sexy, they're manipulative, they're dangerous.

You know, I listen to contemporary music all the time

However, I spent most of my time in a Quaker school.

That's what noir feels like to me. It feels like some kind of recurring dream, with very strong archetypes operating. You know, the guilty girl being pursued, falling, all kinds of stuff that we see in our dreams all the time

However, ironically, I was baptized Presbyterian, and went to a Quaker school for twelve years

The camera lies all the time; lies 24 times/second.

I'm always looking for a kind of new musical entity to sort of move into a motion picture venue

I sometimes go for the strongest, most vivid colour on the palette, which in the case of movies is violence.

It's always great to discover a new star of tomorrow

So I like to try to go back and develop pure visual storytelling. Because to me, it's one of the most exciting aspects of making movies and almost a lost art at this point

The biggest mistake in student films is that they are usually cast so badly, with friends and people the directors know. Actually you can cover a lot of bad direction with good acting

I've been obsessed with this kind of visual storytelling for quite a while, and I try to create material that allows me to explore it.

And we've become very doubtful of our information sources, because they're all controlled by these huge multilateral corporations

You know it's always amazed me - I think the most startling thing that's happened in the last couple of decades is that there is no sort of objective reporting anymore.

Well, like any time you're shooting documentary stuff, you've got to be in the moment, and you've got to be able to be in control enough to capture what's happening

But, number one, I think traditional noir doesn't work in contemporary storytelling because we don't live in that world anymore

I do like directing other people's material.

I hadn't done just a straight-out comedy in a long time, just letting an ensemble do really good character acting, having them carry the movie as in my earlier pictures

The real trouble with film school is that the people teaching are so far out of the industry that they don't give the students an idea of what's happening.

Yeah, I had an idea to make a very scary movie, based on a kind of serial murderer that preys on tourists.

When you make a movie outside the system and it's successful critically or a moderate financial success, you usually have to go back into the system and make a big hit

You've got to remind yourself all the time that you're being measured against the fashions of the day, and if your work truly has any kind of staying power, well, people will be talking about it in 20, 30 years.

I have swum against the stream all my life. It's not something I feel uncomfortable with. Is it difficult? Is it unpleasant? You bet.

I love working with women. I think they're beautiful. I like to photograph them. I like the way they interact. When I was in high school I used to hang out with the girls. When I went to graduate school, I was in an all girls school. So it's something I'm very familiar with and quite fascinated by.

You never can predict things. I knew the movie Peducted would get a reaction, because it's showing a different vision of our soldiers in Iraq. All we ever get told is that they're valued and we support them, and as they're represented on television, they're true-blue and honorable. Which is true, for the most part.

Godard is incredibly brilliant, the things he says. Apparently here in France, the most interesting thing when a new film of his is going to come out are his press conferences, because he's so brilliant

I've been sort of traveling around the country for ten years talking about independent features.

I don't see scary films. I certainly wouldn't go see my films.

do i have political views? you bet! i think the best way to express them is in your work, and then get the hell off the stage

I mean, I don't mind promoting a movie, or talking to the press if it's going to be used in some way

Everybody doesn't have to have a daughter who's a goodie-two-shoes.