All Quotes

"I don't go to movies very much. In fact, I never cared for them. But when I do go, I like to watch Jimmy Stewart. I met him when he was making Strategic Air Command at St. Petersburg, Fla. and like him very much."

"Rope: Rupert Cadell"

"Harvey: Elwood P. Dowd"

"It's a Wonderful Life: George Bailey"

"Mr. Smith Goes to Washington: Jefferson Smith"

"Vertigo: Detective John 'Scottie" Ferguson"

"The Philadelphia Story: Macaulay 'Mike' Connor"

"Rear Window: L.B. Jeffries"

"Now there is no taboo; everything is allowed. But one cannot simply go back to tonality, it’s not the way. We must find a way of neither going back nor continuing the avant-garde. I am in a prison: one wall is the avant-garde, the other wall is the past, and I want to escape."

"You need three or five hands to play Ligeti."

"A friend came over to the house a few days ago and read one of my poems. He came back today and asked to read the same poem over again. After he finished reading it, he said, "It makes me want to write poetry.""

"I like to think (it has to be!) of a cybernetic ecology where we are free of our labors and joined back to nature, returned to our mammal brothers and sisters, and all watched over by machines of loving grace."

"if a girl likes me a lot and starts getting real nervous and suddenly begins asking me funny questions and looks sad if I give the wrong answers and she says things like, "Do you think it's going to rain?" and I say, "It beats me," and she says, "Oh," and looks a little sad at the clear blue California sky, I think: Thank God, it's you, baby, this time Instead of me."

"Forsaken, fucking in the cold, eating each other, lost runny noses, complaining all the time like so many people that we know"

"Thinking hard about you I got on the bus and paid 30 cents car fare and asked the driver for two transfers before discovering that I was alone."

"Everybody wants to go to bed with everybody else, they're lined up for blocks, so I'll go to bed with you. They won't miss us."

"There are seductions that should be in the Smithsonian Institute, right next to The Spirit of St. Louis."

"Everything smelled of sheep. The dandelions were suddenly more sheep than flower, each petal reflecting wool and the sound of a bell ringing off the yellow. But the thing that smelled the most like sheep, was the sun itself. When the sun went behind a cloud, the smell of sheep decreased, like standing on some old guy's hearing aid, and when the sun came back again, the smell of the sheep was loud, like a clap of thunder inside a cup of coffee."

"Probably the closest things to perfection are the huge absolutely empty holes that astronomers have recently discovered in space. If there's nothing there, how can anything go wrong?"

"Not in the time of pleasure Hope doth set her bow; But in the sky of sorrow, Over the vale of woe. Through gloom and shadow look we On beyond the years! The soul would have no rainbow Had the eyes no tears."

"Who drives the horses of the sun Shall lord it but a day; Better the lowly deed were done, And kept the humble way."

"The rust will find the sword of fame, The dust will hide the crown; Ay, none shall nail so high his name Time will not tear it down."

"The happiest heart that ever beat Was in some quiet breast That found the common daylight sweet, And left to Heaven the rest."

"“You mess with Spidey, you mess with New York!” More than any other superhero, Spider-Man is New York. He's the kid from Queens, the blue-collar nerd who got bitten by a radioactive spider and became the world's most famous teenage crime fighter. In Sam Raimi's 2002 film, a random man in the crowd hollers the above line as a group of New Yorkers protect Spider-Man (Tobey Maguire) from his arch nemesis The Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe). It's a sincere moment, unburdened by the self-reflective seriousness found in the genre's contemporary efforts. Ironically for a film often cited as kickstarting the modern superhero movie trend, Raimi's Spider-Man is a bland superhero movie by today's standards. It is simply a story about a guy, the girl he loves and the city he shields from harm. It wasn't Raimi's intention to make a cinematic dissertation on the different types of heroism. Nor for that matter was he attempting to make a generic superhero movie. He set out to make a Spider-Man movie, and making a great Spider-Man movie requires making a great New York movie. As such, Raimi's version of New York is a place where fantasy and reality meet. There is no doubt that Spider-Man is a fantasy, as Peter reacts to his overnight transformation with a goofy grin because he's developed shredded abs. But even with his newfound powers he still suffers loss. He and the rest of New York don't freak out at the idea of a guy swinging between buildings. In this city and the world, Raimi creates within it, that seems perfectly normal. The director injects realism into the story by having his characters work mundane jobs to meet mundane ends like paying rent. They lead regular lives, and we are given hints of their everyday activities. In this film, New York is more than a setting, as Raimi gives his supporting characters lives outside of Spider-Man and The Green Goblin's ideological conflict."

"When Spider-Man was proposed to me originally it was like, ‘Really, you’re going to make a movie from a comic book?’” Dafo said. “It was like I was slumming it, you know? I didn’t see it that way, but some people were like, ‘Really?’"

"Imagine "Superman" with a Clark Kent more charismatic than the Man of Steel, and you'll understand how "Spider-Man" goes wrong. Tobey Maguireis pitch-perfect as the socially retarded Peter Parker, but when he becomes Spider-Man, the film turns to action sequences that zip along like perfunctory cartoons. Not even during Spidey's first experimental outings do we feel that flesh and blood are contending with gravity. Spidey soars too quickly through the skies of Manhattan; he's as convincing as Mighty Mouse."

"Remember the first time you saw the characters defy gravity in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"? They transcended gravity, but they didn't dismiss it: They seemed to possess weight, dimension and presence. Spider-Man as he leaps across the rooftops is landing too lightly, rebounding too much like a bouncing ball. He looks like a video game figure, not like a person having an amazing experience."

"The other super-being in the movie is the Green Goblin, who surfs the skies in jet-shoes. He, too, looks like a drawing being moved quickly around a frame, instead of like a character who has mastered a daring form of locomotion. He's handicapped, too, by his face, which looks like a high-tech action figure with a mouth that doesn't move."

"Peter Parker was crucial in the evolution of Marvel comics because he was fallible and had recognizable human traits. He was a nerd, a loner, socially inept, insecure, a poor kid being raised by relatives. Maguire gets all of that just right, and I enjoyed the way Dunst is able to modulate her gradually increasing interest in this loser who begins to seem attractive to her. I also liked the complexity of the villain, who in his Dr. Jekyll manifestation is brilliant tycoon Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe) and in his Mr. Hyde persona is a cackling psychopath."

"9/11 was undeniably a paradigm shift. Its effects would ripple throughout the next decade and continues to impact the world today. The superhero industry's response to the unjust tragedy was felt immediately. Those who went to the movies to escape the ubiquitous news coverage on Sept. 11, 2001 would have seen a trailer for “Spider-Man,” which would be released in the following May. The trailer, which featured Spider-Man trapping a helicopter of bank robbers in a web strung up between the Twin Towers, was quickly pulled out of circulation along with posters featuring the towers reflected in his eyes. The nation, still reeling from the horrors of 9/11, flooded the theaters the following year, hitting a record high for U.S. admissions—1.64 billion moviegoers—in 2002, according to the 2006 U.S. Theatrical Market Statistics. Spider-Man raked in the highest domestic growth of 2002, beating well-established franchises “Lord of the Rings” and “Star Wars” (“All Time Worldwide Opening”). The nation clearly hungered for a figure who could save the country—or, in this case, at least defend New York."

"Q: Do you have a favourite scene in the film?"

"Movies hadn't been doing the sort of opening-weekend business that's fairly common – even expected – today. The first Harry Potter came out about six months before us and it was this phenomenon from Day one. It was so wild because it was a new thing at that moment – and I'm not saying that hasn't happened in movie history, but at the time that was a big jump. and then that happened with us. People didn't anticipate [2002's Spider- Man] to be like that. Leading up to it you start to get reactions and people tell you, you know, what the tracking is and what range your opening weekend box office is likely to be. but for me it was kind of unexpected. So much shifted in my life the weekend the movie came out. it was shocking."

"I worked closely with David Koepp who based his scenario on that of James Cameron. I especially wanted to develop what I like in Spider-Man, that is to say the character of Peter Parker. I really did not care about Spidey, I wanted a movie about Peter Parker. (Laughs) It's interesting because he looks like us, he does not have a lot of money, he grew up in a working class environment, he can not fit in, he has problems at school ... His egoism and irresponsibility contribute to his uncle's death and he does not know how to live with it. But when he realizes that he must live to become the responsible person his uncle wanted him to become, he takes the mask. And that's what I'm interested in Spidey. For me, he becomes a hero by becoming responsible, not by knocking out some bad guys. (He thinks) I feel still invested with great responsibilities. Parents will take their children to see the movie and whether it is good or bad, these kids will point the screen and say, "I want to be like Spider-Man . " I know that there will be this admiration and I had to put on the screen a character who deserves this admiration."

"Initially, I wanted to build a very light camera, from 2 to 3 kg, loaded with a minute of film, mounted on a system of cranes and pulleys, with mini engines. She could have flown over the streets of Manhattan, drifting over passersby and reaching a speed of 60 km / h. But production was certain that we would lose control and kill people! So we tried lots of other things that did not work, like stuntmen hanging from cables, but they had neither the grace nor the acrobatic agility of Spidey. Then John Dykstra, the head of visual effects, proposed a virtual Spidey. I did not like this idea, I did not think I could convince the public with a virtual human, it would not be real enough. But at the point where we were, we tried. And it works. But because Spidey is wearing a suit. If it had been necessary to create skin or virtual eyes, nobody would have believed it."

"I stay true to the spirit of Spider-Man . Its creators, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, wanted Peter Parker to be like us. I can identify with a simple high school student not a genius capable of inventing this mechanism and this canvas. I wanted to tell the story of an ordinary boy who becomes an extraordinary being, not that of an extraordinary boy who becomes an extraordinary hero."

"Tobey Maguire – Peter Parker/Spider Man"

"Willem Dafoe – Norman Osborn/Green Goblin: Harry's dad"

"Kirsten Dunst – Mary Jane (MJ) Watson"

"James Franco – Harry Osborn: Norman's son"

"Cliff Robertson – Ben Parker: May's husband and Peter's uncle"

"Rosemary Harris – May Parker: Peter's aunt and Ben's wife"

"J. K. Simmons – J. Jonah Jameson"

"Joe Manganiello – Eugene "Flash" Thompson"

"So in the Libyan fable it is told That once an eagle, stricken with a dart, Said, when he saw the fashion of the shaft, "With our own feathers, not by others' hands, Are we now smitten.""

"Of all the gods, Death only craves not gifts: Nor sacrifice, nor yet drink-offering poured Avails; no altars hath he, nor is soothed By hymns of praise. From him alone of all The powers of heaven Persuasion holds aloof."

"ὅπου γὰρ ἰσχὺς συζυγοῦσι καὶ δίκη ποία ξυνωρὶς τῆσδε καρτερωτέρα"

"O Death the Healer, scorn thou not, I pray, To come to me: of cureless ills thou art The one physician. Pain lays not its touch Upon a corpse."

"The man who does ill, ill must suffer too."

"A prosperous fool is a grievous burden."

"Bronze is the mirror of the form; wine, of the heart."