Jean Renoir Quotes

To the question, ‘Is the cinema an art?’ my answer is, ‘what does it matter?’... You can make films or you can cultivate a garden. Both have as much claim to being called an art as a poem by Verlaine or a painting by Delacroix… Art is ‘making.’ The art of poetry is the art of making poetry. The art of love is the art of making love... My father never talked to me about art. He could not bear the word.

A Director Makes Only One Movie in His Life. Then He Breaks It Into Pieces and Makes It Again.

When a friend speaks to me, whatever he says is interesting.

The saving grace of the cinema is that with patience, and a little love, we may arrive at that wonderfully complex creature which is called man.

The foundation of all civilization is loitering.

All technical refinements discourage me. Perfect photography, larger screens, hi-fi sound, all make it possible for mediocrities slavishly to reproduce nature; and this reproduction bores me. What interests me is the interpretation of life by an artist. The personality of the film maker interests me more than the copy of an object.

The awful thing about life is this: everyone has their reasons.

A film director is not a creator, but a midwife. His business is to deliver the actor of a child that he did not know he had inside him.

Is it possible to succeed without any act of betrayal?

The only things that are important in life are the things you remember.

The advantage of being eighty years old is that one has many people to love.

I am against great themes and great subjects... You can't film an idea. The camera is an instrument for recording physical impact.

There is no realism in American films. No realism, but something much better, great truth.

I believe that perfection handicaps cinema.

The real hell of life is that everyone has his reasons.

Nature is millions of things. And there are millions of ways of understanding its preoccupations.

Everyone has his reasons.

You see, in this world there is one awful thing, and that is that everyone has his reasons.