Satyajit Ray Quotes & Sayings

“The director is the only person who knows what the film is about.”

“The only solutions that are ever worth anything are the solutions that people find themselves.”

“There's always some room for improvisation.”

“I wouldn't mind taking a rest for three or four months, but I have to keep on making films for the sake of my crew, who just wait for the next film because they're not on a fixed salary.”

“My films play only in Bengal, and my audience is the educated middle class in the cities and small towns. They also play in Bombay, Madras and Delhi where there is a Bengali population.”

“When I write an original story I write about people I know first-hand and situations I'm familiar with. I don't write stories about the nineteenth century.”

“At the age when Bengali youth almost inevitably writes poetry, I was listening to European classical music.”

“I think they quite like me when I work because I'm one of the safer directors to back, because even if my films don't bring their costs in back home, once they're shown outside of India they manage to cover the costs.”

“Sometimes a director is making three films. Perhaps he is shooting a film in Madras and a film in Bombay and he can't leave Madras as some shooting has to be done, so he directs by telephone. The shooting takes place. On schedule.”

“The conception of background music is changing. You use less and less of it these days.”