Michael Mann Quotes & Sayings

“Miami is one of these great places that is a really sensual, physically beautiful place.”

“We bring our preparation to the table, and opportunity may present itself, and if you are well prepared, you can seize opportunity and then maybe something good happens, and you call that luck.”

“By the time I was 21, I knew what I wanted to do, and that was to direct films.”

“Digital makes things feel more real, like you could reach out and touch them.”

“We take safety very, very seriously on every film I make, and that's why I've never had a serious accident or anybody killed when I make a picture.”

“I own a horse and ride, but I don't know racing or betting.”

“I realized horses have personality when I bought one and I had one, who's now out to pasture, a horse named Drifter. Before that, I was a city boy. Horses, I used to go out to the LaBagh Woods and ride at a stable once every two years or something; no idea about horses. Dogs, I knew, had personalities, but not horses.”

“There's people who live life authentically and there's people who live a life of fabrication. And it begins with the question of how you're gonna do your time. And these are observations I made about Folsom when I was there with Dustin Hoffman when he was directing 'Straight Time.'”

“As filmmakers, we want the audience to have the most complete experience they can. For example, I interviewed Stanley Kubrick years ago around the time of '2001: A Space Odyssey.' I was going to see the film that night in London, and he insisted I sit in one of four seats in the theater for the best view or not watch the film.”

“I don't underestimate audiences' intelligence. Audiences are much brighter than media gives them credit for. When people went to a movie once a week in the 1930s and that was their only exposure to media, you were required to do a different grammar.”