Peter Greenaway Quotes & Sayings (Page 2)

“If you want to tell stories, be a writer, not a filmmaker.”

“We all know that we're going to die, but we don't know when. That's not a blessing, that's a curse.”

“I suppose I am gently cynical about notions of who we think we are, but I certainly don't hate my fellow man. I think my cinema, although it might often deal with death and decay, is highly celebratory.”

“In a world where we can all be our own filmmakers, the old elites are disappearing and there is no desire to look at somebody else's dream anymore because you can go off and make your own.”

“I think my films are always quite self-reflexive and always question 'why am I doing this, is this the right way to do it, what is cinema for, does it have a purpose?'”

“I think that films or indeed any art work should be made in a way that they are infinitely viewable; so that you could go back to it time and time again, not necessarily immediately but over a space of time, and see new things in it, or new ways of looking at it.”

“English culture is highly literary-based.”

“I admit that death is not just about you, it's also about the people who love you.”

“I can't think of anyone who has done anything remotely useful after the age of 80.”

“I don't believe in the deplorable notion of realism in the cinema: you can over-reach it, and it becomes as false as convention.”