Film Editors

"Motion pictures are the most important contribution to literature and art since the invention of fiction."

"I figure there's two things in a movie: that you are looking at something, you are listening to something. So I like to put a lot of attention into the music and into the recording of the dialogue and into the sets."

"I want to make films that are about visual pleasure for women. Not worry about whether they are in fashion, whether they are politically correct."

"I think Marty's use of violence is very valid. He never uses it gratuitously, he always makes a very strong point….if you're going to show violence and it's done with conviction the way Marty does it then it is correct."

"Ah, but they aren't violent until I've edited them."

"You get to contribute so significantly in the editing room because you shape the movie and the performances," she says. "You help the director bring all the hard work of those who made the film to fruition. You give their work rhythm and pace and sometimes adjust the structure to make the film work – to make it start to flow up there on the screen. And then it's very rewarding after a year's work to see people react to what you've done in the theater."

"When you're a film-maker you become addicted, your family suffers, your friends suffer, to say nothing of what's going on on the set. It's an incredible way to show the impulse to view. Directors are constantly looking."

"Editing is a lot about patience and discipline and just banging away at something, turning off the machine and going home at night because you're frustrated and depressed, and then coming back in the morning to try again."

"I remember that, as a kid. I never really understood how movies were made, until that movie, because it was such a technical accomplishment. Since then, you’ve seen more and more and more, for all different kids of films, about what goes into the process. If people enjoy the film, it can be really intriguing to see what created that film, how each one of those unique components came together, who the people are who did it and what it meant to them to do it. That’s a great thing to put out there, especially if it is a film that has different technological aspects that are unique. There’s not a lot of that that’s been done before, so I think it’s good for people to see."

"I think one of the things we may have missed in horror the last few years is how much fun those movies are to watch. They’re a good time. Horror has either been J Horror, moving upside down, girl with long hair, twisted head kind of thing, towards more let’s torture somebody and do something horrible over a long period of time and you can watch the trainwreck in real time. There are places for both kinds of movies, and there are great examples of both kinds but they’re not necessarily the most good time you can have at a theater."

"I love filmmaking when fate is a part of the process and you are dependent on the laws of physics and the elements to get a single moment that transports or in some way creates an illusion even for a moment. I think that is tremendous fun and what I think filmmaking is, catching lightning in a bottle. I feel like we are so used to CGI now and thank god because it is a wonderful tool, but there is an element of everything you are looking at has been created in the comfort of a studio. I want to return to a world where I can celebrate when you are really interacting with the world."

"I really love seeing things go sour, because that’s the way dread creeps into life. A lot of horror films start with a great shock scene. I grew up on that model and it’s great fun, but very perversely, I’m interested in setting up something else, where you’re really engaged with the humanity of the characters — you could be in a normal drama with its own set of problems — and then something else develops. I like this philosophical question: what comes first, reality or your interpretation of it? However interesting that is, and whether it fits in with the horror genre, I don’t know, but I think it makes perfect sense."

"I consider myself very sentimental, very sensitive, but obviously my outward appearance is a bit scruffy-haired, and I have a general tendency toward snarling at people, and a sort of misanthropic nature. Maybe that is what people actually read. I do actually believe that misanthropy and sensitivity go hand in hand, because I have a tremendous disappointment in the ways of the world."

"There were two times in my life that inspired me the most. The first was when I was a kid, probably the most emotionally influential time, when you’re naïve and innocent. I went to movie theaters and fell in love with genre films in the 1950s, when there was a big wave of monster movies. My passion came from the young guy who was watching The Fly back in 1958. Then, going to USC I began to watch movies in a different way and was exposed to different kinds of movies, foreign films. We had directors like Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, Howard Hawks and John Ford come down and lecture us. It was unbelievable!"

"I staggered through my career and came out the other end, alive. I made some films that meant something to me. In my opinion, they weren’t all great, and they weren’t all successful, but they sure were ‘me’. And this is what I was going through or thinking or feeling as a director at the time, and I’m very proud of them. A lot of great directors just never had the chance to have their work appreciated and celebrated and watched, all these years after they were made. So, man, what do you want out of life? It’s great!"

"When I think of John Carpenter, I am amazed at the fact that we take him for granted. How can we? Why should we? He is lightning in a bottle"

"A lot of people who are in the movie business don't really know much about movies, and they certainly don't know movie history. You have to even find a code when you're talking to these people—you can't use the references that you would use when talking to somebody who knows movie history. When you go in to pitch something, it depends what you invoke. You can't invoke anything really before 1980 with these people because they don't know what you're talking about. It's limiting. They get annoyed. They get offended that you are somehow trying to expose the fact that they don't know things, and make them feel inadequate. Which is of course not the point, or why you do it."

"Our mother tried to get us to come here for many, many years … But, you know, life intervenes — we've been busy."

"My most important professional accomplishment? I think that it's that I'm so scintillating and engaging in an interview."

"That movie has more of an enduring fascination for other people than it does for us."

"The world is full of complainers. But the fact is, nothing comes with a guarantee. I don't care if you're the Pope of Rome, President of the United States, or even Man of the Year — something can always go wrong. And go ahead, complain, tell your problems to your neighbor, ask for help — watch him fly. Now in Russia, they got it mapped out so that everyone pulls for everyone else — that's the theory, anyway. But what I know about is Texas … And down here... you're on your own."

"Something pretty fucking weird is going on. Put your coat on and I'll drop you at home. But don't talk to either of 'em until I do. And don't worry. Believe me. These things always have a logical explanation. Usually."

"Prison life is more structured than most men care for…"

"We're only interested in one thing, Bart. Can you tell a story? Can you make us laugh? Can you make us cry? Can you make us want to break out in joyous song? Is that more than one thing? Okay!"

"Mind if I sit down? I'm carrying quite a load here."

"I guess that was your accomplice in the wood chipper. And those three people in Brainerd. And for what? For a little bit of money. There's more to life than a little money, you know. Don't you know that? And here ya are, and it's a beautiful day. Well, I just don't understand it."

"Look, let me explain something to you. I'm not Mr. Lebowski. You're Mr. Lebowski. I'm the Dude. So that's what you call me. That, or His Dudeness … Duder … or El Duderino, if, you know, you're not into the whole brevity thing."

"Nihilists! Fuck me. I mean, say what you like about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it's an ethos."

"The Dude abides."

"Damn! We're in a tight spot!"

"Pete, it's a fool that looks for logic in the chambers of the human heart."

"They got this guy, in Germany. Fritz Something-or-other. Or is it? Maybe it's Werner. Anyway, he's got this theory, you wanna test something, you know, scientifically — how the planets go round the sun, what sunspots are made of, why the water comes out of the tap — well, you gotta look at it. But sometimes you look at it, your looking changes it. Ya can't know the reality of what happened, or what would've happened if you hadn't-a stuck in your own goddamn schnozz. So there is no "what happened"? Not in any sense that we can grasp, with our puny minds. Because our minds... our minds get in the way. Looking at something changes it. They call it the "Uncertainty Principle". Sure, it sounds screwy, but even Einstein says the guy's on to something."

"The more you look, the less you really know."

"The crime you see now, it's hard to even take its measure. It's not that I'm afraid of it. I always knew you had to be willin' to die to even do this job. But, I don't want to push my chips forward and go out and meet somethin' I don't understand. A man would have to put his soul at hazard. He'd have to say: "O.K., I'll be part of this world.""

"What's the most you've ever lost on a coin toss?"

"If the rule you followed brought you to this, of what use was the rule?"

"The coin don't have no say! It's just you!"

"You go for a man hard enough and fast enough, he don't have time to think about how many's with him; he thinks about himself, and how he might get clear of that wrath that's about to set down on him."

"The Coens seem to have less affinity for the cult of Lebowski than Bridges, so it's hard to imagine them being very proud of what they've spawned. But I can't think of two people I'd rather shoot the shit with. Besides Bridges, of course."

"I'm a bit puzzled why most critics think Miller's Crossing is their best. I find it too cold and postmodern. But pretty much everything else is amazing. I think some of their lesser-loved films, like The Hudsucker Proxy and The Man Who Wasn't There are my favourites. But then, Barton Fink, Raising Arizona, No Country For Old Men… They're really the best films of our time. The Coens are better candidates for heroes of modern literature than Philip Roth, Don DeLillo, Will Self, Ian McEwan or any other award-winning novelist."

"I like the Coen brothers. Their films are smart and disturbing."

"I often sneak into the cinema and watch how the audience are reacting to my movie. It teaches me so much."

"He is the most consistently successful South African movie maker around, firmly cornering the giggle market."

"He's a kind of Paul McCartney of the cinema."

"I've had people working for me who are film-school graduates and honestly, if they had been clapper boys or tea boys they probably would have learned more."

"Sex is not necessary to make a movie sell. It's enough to have a pretty girl in the movie."

"Editing makes or breaks a movie, you know."

"As I've gone through life, I've found that your chances for happiness are increased if you wind up doing something that is a reflection of what you loved most when you were somewhere between nine and eleven years old."

"Money has no value unless it is spent. (undated)"

"He can be a generous host and a most entertaining companion but he can also be rude and a bully, as if it amuses him to confront the world in the guise of a self-made shit. It's hard to understand why this should be so. It can't be financial disappointment because God knows he has made enough money. Perhaps what gripes him is that he wanted to be a great director and never became one. Not enough for him, I suspect, that as a producer he has few peers among his contemporaries in the British film industry."