Film Directors From The United States

"The timeless moment. — The "moment" has no yesterday or tomorrow. It is not the result of thought and therefore has no time."

"The primary reality is not what I think, but that I live, for those also live who do not think."

"Life itself is your teacher, and you are in a state of constant learning."

"Life is never stagnation. It is constant movement, unrhythmic movement, as we as constant change. Things live by moving and gain strength as they go."

"Meaning is found in relationship. — Meaning is the relationship of the foreground figure to the background."

"The aphorism "as a man thinketh in his heart so is he" contains the secret of life."

"The meaning of life is that it is to be lived, and it is not to be traded and conceptualized and squeezed into a pattern of systems."

"Life lives; and in the living flow, no questions are raised. The reason is that life is a living now! So, in order to live life whole-heartedly, the answer is life simply is."

"Life is wide, limitless. There is no border, no frontier."

"Emptiness the starting point. — In order to taste my cup of water you must first empty your cup. My friend, drop all your preconceived and fixed ideas and be neutral. Do you know why this cup is useful? Because it is empty."

"I'm in the midst of preparing my next movie, Enter the Dragon a coproduction between Concord and Warner Bros., plus another Concord production, The Game of Death, which is only halfway done"

"The spirit of the individual is determined by his dominating thought habits."

"The intangible represents the real power of the universe. It is the seed of the tangible."

"Make at least one definite move daily toward your goal."

"Thoughts are things."

"Possession of anything begins in the mind."

"Faith makes it possible to achieve that which man's mind can conceive and believe."

"Faith is a state of mind that can be conditioned through self-discipline. Faith will accomplish."

"Take inventory of everyone with whom you have contact."

"The man who is really serious, with the urge to find out what truth is, has no style at all. He lives only in what is."

"Even today, I dare not say that I have reached a state of achievement. I'm still learning, for learning is boundless."

"As an instructor, you must be able to distinguish between poor performance caused by lack of ability or aptitude on the part of the student and poor performance caused by lack of effort. You should treat the first with patience and the latter with firmness. You must never apply sarcasm and ridicule."

"Actually, the father of mixed martial arts, if you will, was Bruce Lee. If you look at the way Bruce Lee trained, the way he fought, and many of the things he wrote, he said the perfect style was no style. You take a little something from everything. You take the good things from every different discipline, use what works, and you throw the rest away."

"Bruce Lee is my idol. I need to learn some techniques of Bruce Lee, especially the quickness of his hands and legs."

"I remember many times my father (Ed Parker) talking about, pound for pound, Lee was the best martial artist, he'd ever seen."

"I truly liked and admired Bruce. I worked with him some and he helped me in my foot movement and back fist. Bruce probable weighed 135 pounds at most, but he could hit like a mule. I know, because he knocked me under Sharon Tate’s barstool at Columbia Pictures in 1968. Bruce never confronted any big men to my knowledge. There are stories out there, but none I personally know of. I will say this; I would have picked Bruce in any street situation. He had the knowledge and the attitude to carry him through anything."

"Every kid, I believe, in America noticed that guy behind The Green Hornet— the one who could kick, the one who could punch, the one who could move so amazingly—all eyes centered on him. … The makers of The Green Hornet had to actively restrain Bruce Lee from being himself because they realized every time they saw the rushes that everything else was wiped off-screen."

"I considered him by far the greatest. And for those who don't considering him the greatest, at least he is the top candidate for being actually the greatest."

"If Bruce Lee wasn't the greatest martial artist of all time, then certainly he is the number one candidate."

"When Bruce Lee kicked, you don't shut your eyes. Because when you shut your eyes, you cannot see Bruce Lee kick it's so fast! Human beings cannot move like cartoon [sound effects], that's the fastest you can be. Even Muhammad Ali or Mike Tyson, their punches are fast, but you still can see [them]."

"In a dictionary, you say "greatest", you say "Bruce Lee", that's the way it is. He is second to no one."

"I wanted to do in boxing what Bruce Lee was able to do in the martial arts. Lee was an artist and, like him, I try to get beyond the fundamentals of my sport. I want my fights to be seen as plays."

"The slender, swift Bruce Lee was the Fred Astaire of martial arts, and many of the fights that could be merely brutal come across as lightning-fast choreography."

"There's no doubt in my mind that if Bruce Lee had gone into pro boxing, he could easily have ranked in the top three in the lightweight division or junior-welterweight division."

"The story was particularly serious . . . I know Bruce Lee from secondary school in Nigeria. I come from Ghana, and there has always been a race, a loving rivalry between two countries. So I was picked on. Every child who is bullied, has an imaginary hero. I had several, and Bruce Lee was the greatest. Every little boy has a little bit of Bruce Lee in him."

"His martial art skills made Lee arguably the greatest martial artist of his time — or any other."

"I wouldn't have put a dime on anyone to beat Bruce Lee in a real confrontation. Bruce Lee was the best street fighter I ever saw, even to this very day, and not just pound for pound — but against anyone in a real fight."

"Bruce Lee lived martial arts every day! He could do things in the martial arts that others could not. He was very friendly and outgoing and usually the center of attention. We met after the national championships in 1964 during a dinner. Because I had just won the championship, he immediately challenged me. He said, "I want to challenge you to an arm wrestling match." I thought this guy barely weighs 120 pounds soaking wet. This will be simple, and I immediately accepted his challenge. Then he said, "But we’re going to arm wrestle — Chinese style." I agreed since I really thought I could take him any way that he wanted to wrestle. At the time, I weighed about 225 pounds to his 120 pounds. So we got to it, and I will confess that trying to twist his arm was like trying to twist a piece of steel! He looked at me and smiled while I was giving it all I had. Then he just dumped me over like it was nothing at all. He was quite a martial artist– the best I’ve ever seen. Yet with skill that masterful, he was always very warm and friendly — the kind of guy everyone wanted to meet."

"When I was having dinner with Chuck Norris I did ask him: "If you and Bruce would be in a real fight to death, who would win?", and he said without thinking: "Bruce of course. Nobody can beat him.""

"The perfect way is only difficult for those who pick and choose. Do not like, do not dislike; all will then be clear. Make a hairbreadth difference and heaven and earth are set apart; if you want the truth to stand clear before you, never be for or against. The struggle between "for" and "against" is the mind's worst disease."

"Bruce Lee was grateful to those who helped his career. When The Green Hornet was cancelled, he wrote to producer William Dozier to say, "I like to take this opportunity to thank you personally for all that you've done to start my career in show business. Without you, I would never have thought about being in Hollywood. I've gained tremendous experience from the Green Hornet and believe I've improved steadily since the first show----that of minimizing and hacking away the unessential.""

"When asked what the difference between a karate punch and a kung-fu punch was during his first U.S. screen test in 1965, Bruce Lee replied, “Well, a karate punch is like being hit by an iron bar—whack! A kung-fu punch is like being hit by an iron ball swung on an iron chain with an iron ball attached to the end—it goes WHANG!—and it hurts inside.” Then he stood up and showed exactly what that might look like in a flurry of hands and feet moving so fast they blurred."

"Research your own experience; absorb what is useful, reject what is useless and add what is essentially your own."

"Don't fear failure. — Not failure, but low aim, is the crime. In great attempts it is glorious even to fail."

"A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at."

"Cease negative mental chattering. — If you think a thing is impossible, you'll make it impossible. Pessimism blunts the tools you need to succeed."

"Choose the positive. — You have choice — you are master of your attitude — choose the POSITIVE, the CONSTRUCTIVE. Optimism is a faith that leads to success."

"The change is from inner to outer. — We start by dissolving our attitude not by altering outer conditions."

"Know the difference between a catastrophe and an inconvenience. — To realize that it's just an inconvenience, that it is not a catastrophe, but just an unpleasantness, is part of coming into your own, part of waking up."

"What you HABITUALLY THINK largely determines what you will ultimately become."