Robert Altman Quotes

Quotes about:

• Filmmaking is a chance to live many lifetimes.

  Robert Altman

  Inspirational, Motivational, Chance

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  50 Copy quote

• Making a movie is like chipping away at a stone. You take a piece off here, you take a piece off there and when you're finished, you have a sculpture. You know that there's something in there, but you're not sure exactly what it is until you find it.

  Robert Altman

  Sculpture, Pieces, Stones

  8 Copy quote

• I never knew what I wanted, except that it was something I hadn't seen before.

  Robert Altman

  Wanted

  "Robert Altman: What I've Learned" by Scott Raab, www.esquire.com. January 29, 2007.

  14 Copy quote

• 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.

  Robert Altman

  Thinking, People, Secret

  "Robert Altman: What I've Learned" by Scott Raab, www.esquire.com. January 29, 2007.

  6 Copy quote

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

  Robert Altman

  Children, Giving, Advice

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  5 Copy quote

• I am not an expert. That is someone else's job. If I were expert, the approach would be all wrong. It would be from the inside. I am a blunderer. I usually don't know what I am going into at the start. I go into the fog and trust something will be there.

  Robert Altman

  Jobs, Fog, Experts

  "Still up to mischief" by Suzie Mackenzie, www.theguardian.com. April 30, 2004.

  14 Copy quote

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

  Robert Altman

  Alive, Film, Strive

  Robert Altman, David Sterritt (2000). “Robert Altman: Interviews”, p.40, Univ. Press of Mississippi

  9 Copy quote

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

  Robert Altman

  Mistake, Names, Giving

  "Still up to mischief" by Suzie Mackenzie, www.theguardian.com. April 30, 2004.

  11 Copy quote

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

  Robert Altman

  Fall, Thinking, Ego

  12 Copy quote

• 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.

  Robert Altman

  Sea, Fishing, Rivers

  "Robert Altman: What I've Learned" by Scott Raab, www.esquire.com. January 29, 2007.

  12 Copy quote

• [The Player is] not a truthful indictment of Hollywood. It's much uglier than I portrayed it, but nobody would've been interested if I'd shown just how sadistic, cruel and self-orientated it is.

  Robert Altman

  Player, Self, Hollywood

  13 Copy quote

• What is an ending? There's no such thing. Death is the only ending.

  Robert Altman

  "Biography / Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  9 Copy quote

• Most of my films I call arena films. I deal with a confined area -- an arena -- and I try to cover every aspect of it.

  Robert Altman

  Trying, Arena, Film

  7 Copy quote

• That wasn't an ending. It was just a stopping point.

  Robert Altman

  Hollywood, Stopping, Film

  5 Copy quote

• 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.

  Robert Altman

  Wise, Love You, Light

  "Robert Altman: What I've Learned" by Scott Raab, www.esquire.com. January 29, 2007.

  5 Copy quote

• I have never made a movie that's attracted a 14-year-old boy.

  Robert Altman

  Boys, Years, Made

  Source: www.today.com

  9 Copy quote

• 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.

  Robert Altman

  Light, Radio, Might

  14 Copy quote

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

  Robert Altman

  Writing, Mean, Thinking

  11 Copy quote

• If you have a child who is seven feet tall, you don't cut off his head or his legs. You buy him a bigger bed and hope he plays basketball.

  Robert Altman

  Basketball, Children, Cutting

  10 Copy quote

• The artist and the multitude are natural enemies. They always will be, both ways. The artist is an enemy of the multitude, and the multitude is the enemy of the artist. And when the disguise comes off and they're both standing facing one another, they're just there at odds end.

  Robert Altman

  Art, Odds, Enemy

  Robert Altman, David Sterritt (2000). “Robert Altman: Interviews”, p.71, Univ. Press of Mississippi

  10 Copy quote

• People have asked me throughout the years which directors have influenced me. I don't know their names, because I was mostly influenced when I'd see a film and think, "Man, I want to be sure to never do anything like that." So I never learned their names. It wasn't a matter of copying or emulating somebody I admired. It was getting rid of a lot of stuff.

  Robert Altman

  Men, Thinking, Years

  7 Copy quote

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

  Robert Altman

  Jazz, Moments

  "Robert Altman: What I've Learned" by Scott Raab, www.esquire.com. January 29, 2007.

  6 Copy quote

• I insist that they do what they became actors to do. I want them to create something and not just hit marks and say words. So they all love that because they're playing. It's called playacting. Their contributions are not only welcomed, but are accepted and used.

  Robert Altman

  Actors, Want, Accepted

  14 Copy quote

• They'll never give me an Oscar. And I sincerely, honestly don't care. I always turn up when I'm nominated and it would be nice to get one, but to win one would be bad luck. It comes with too much expectation. It would be the end.

  Robert Altman

  Nice, Winning, Expectations

  11 Copy quote

• I was a heavy drinker, but the alcohol affected my heart rather than my liver. So I stopped. I smoke grass now. I say that to everybody, because marijuana should be legalized. It's ridiculous that it isn't. If at the end of the day I feel like smoking a joint I do it. It changes the perception of what I've been through all day.

  Robert Altman

  Heart, Marijuana, Smoking

  4 Copy quote

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