Stanley Kubrick Quotes & Sayings

“A film is - or should be - more like music than like fiction. It should be a progression of moods and feelings. The theme, what's behind the emotion, the meaning, all that comes later.”

“You're an idealist, and I pity you as I would the village idiot.”

“The screen is a magic medium. It has such power that it can retain interest as it conveys emotions and moods that no other art form can hope to tackle.”

“The great nations have always acted like gangsters, and the small nations like prostitutes.”

“If you can talk brilliantly about a problem, it can create the consoling illusion that it has been mastered.”

“You sit at the board and suddenly your heart leaps. Your hand trembles to pick up the piece and move it. But what chess teaches you is that you must sit there calmly and think about whether it's really a good idea and whether there are other, better ideas.”

“A filmmaker has almost the same freedom as a novelist has when he buys himself some paper.”

“Any time you take a chance you better be sure the rewards are worth the risk because they can put you away just as fast for a ten dollar heist as they can for a million dollar job.”

“It's crazy how you can get yourself in a mess sometimes and not even be able to think about it with any sense and yet not be able to think about anything else.”

“If it can be written, or thought, it can be filmed.”