Quentin Tarantino Quotes
My parents said, Oh, he`s going to be a director someday. I wanted to be an actor.
Sergio Leone was a big influence on me because of the spaghetti westerns.
To me, America is just another market.
To me, movies and music go hand in hand. When I`m writing a script, one of the first things I do is find the music I`m going to play for the opening sequence.
When I`m writing something, I try not to get analytical about it as I`m doing it, as I`m writing it.
I`ve always thought John Travolta is one of the greatest movie stars Hollywood has ever produced.
I`ve always considered myself a filmmaker who writes stuff for himself to do.
I`m not a Hollywood basher because enough good movies come out of the Hollywood system every year to justify its existence, without any apologies.
I want do a Mandarin language movie. It`ll probably be the next movie I do after the one I do next.
As a viewer, the minute I start getting confused, I check out of the movie. Emotionally, I`m severed.
I want to top expectations. I want to blow you away.
Dogs got personality. Personality goes a long way.
On violence in Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003): "When I was on "The View" (1997), Barbara Walters was asking me about the blood and stuff, and I said, `Well, you know, that`s a staple of Japanese cinema.` And then she came back,`But this is America.` And I go, `I don`t make movies for America. I make movies for planet Earth.`"
I want do a Mandarin language movie. It`ll probably be the next movie I do after the one I do next.
Violence is one of the most fun things to watch.
If I`ve made it a little easier for artists to work in violence, great! I`ve accomplished something.
When people ask me if I went to film school I tell them, `no, I went to films.`
Something stopped me in school a little bit. Anything that I`m not interested in, I can`t even feign interest.
My plan is to have a theatre in some small town or something and I`ll be manager. Ill be the crazy old movie guy.
If I really considered myself a writer, I wouldn`t be writing screenplays. I`d be writing novels.
To me, movies and music go hand in hand. When I`m writing a script, one of the first things I do is find the music I`m going to play for the opening sequence.
I love Elmore Leonard. To me, True Romance is basically like an Elmore Leonard movie.
I loved history because to me, history was like watching a movie.
As a viewer, the minute I start getting confused, I check out of the movie. Emotionally, I`m severed.
On media criticisms of violence in his movies: "What if a kid goes to school after seeing Kill Bill and starts slicing up other kids? You know, I`ll take that chance! Violent films don`t turn children into violent people. They may turn them into violent filmmakers but that`s another matter altogether."
I`ve always considered myself a filmmaker who writes stuff for himself to do.
Everything I learned as an actor, I have basically applied to writing.
I`ve always thought John Travolta is one of the greatest movie stars Hollywood has ever produced.
To me, America is just another market.
I like it when somebody tells me a story, and I actually really feel that that`s becoming like a lost art in American cinema.
On directing the "ER" (1994) episode "Motherhood": "When I was directing ER, I didn`t want to stand out. Everyone else is wearing all that crap. I wanted to fit in. I didn`t want to be the odd man out. I wanted to be inside, not on the outside. When I was directing the ER thing, the emergency room guys wore the green scrubs. I wore those for a few days. Then, I wore the blue scrubs, which were the surgeons,` for a few days. When I wore the nurse`s pink scrubs, though, that`s when I became a hero on the set. The nurses didn`t think I was going to throw in with them. I ended the episode, the last two days, wearing the nurses` scrubs. When I walked on the set all the nurses applauded me. They were like, `Oh my God, he`s so cool!`"
(On making another "Kill Bill" movie) "Oh yeah, initially I was thinking this would be my "Dollars Trilogy". I was going to do a new one every ten years. But I need at least fifteen years before I do this again. I`ve already got the whole mythology: Sofie Fatale will get all of Bill`s money. She`ll raise Nikki, who`ll take on The Bride. Nikki deserves her revenge every bit as much as The Bride deserved hers. I might even shoot a couple of scenes for it now so I can get the actresses while they`re this age."
I couldn`t spell anything. I couldn`t remember anything, but I could go to a movie and I knew who starred in it, who directed it, everything.
On the comparison between Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)`s group fight and Neo vs. 100 Agent Smiths in The Matrix Reloaded (2003): "First off, I`ve always thought of the black suits as mine, so I don`t think of them as Agent Smiths, I think of them as Reservoir Dogs with less cool sunglasses. The similarities between the fight sequences never occurred to me until I had a director`s screening and Luc Besson turned up with Keanu Reeves as his guest. I watched Keanu watching and suddenly I felt it."
It`s a standard staple in Japanese cinema to cut somebody`s arm off and have red water hoses for veins, spraying blood everywhere.
On using surfing music, when hating the surfing culture: "It`s like surf music, I`ve always like loved that but, for me, I don`t know what surf music has to do with surf boards. To me, it just sounds like rock and roll, even Morricone music. It sounds like rock and roll Spaghetti Western music, so that`s how I kind of laid it in."
I will never do `Pulp Fiction 2`, but having said that, I could very well do other movies with these characters.
I`m a big collector of vinyl-I have a record room in my house-and I`ve always had a huge soundtrack album collection.
On collecting movies: "If you`re a film fan, collecting video is sort of like marijuana. Laser discs, they`re definitely cocaine. Film prints are heroin, all right? You`re shooting smack when you start collecting film prints. So, I kinda got into it in a big way, and I`ve got a pretty nice collection I`m real proud of."
Novelists have always had complete freedom to pretty much tell their story any way they saw fit. And that`s what I`m trying to do.
If you want to make a movie, make it. Don`t wait for a grant, don`t wait for the perfect circumstances, just make it. - Giving advice to young aspiring filmmakers at the 1994 Independent Spirit Awards
Movies are not about the weekend that they`re released, and in the grand scheme of things, that`s probably the most unimportant time of a film`s life.
The exploitation films were made in such an artless way with these big wide shots of Sunset Boulevard or of Arcadia or downtown L.A. or wherever. In mainstream films, especially in the 1980s, the Los Angeles you saw wasn`t the real one; it was a character with this back-lot sort of atmosphere. They tried to luxuriate it. In exploitation films, you see what the place really looked like, you see the bars and mom-and-pop restaurants.
I`m not a Hollywood basher because enough good movies come out of the Hollywood system every year to justify its existence, without any apologies.
I hope to give you at least 15 more years of movies. I`m not going to be this old guy that keeps cranking them out. My plan is to have a theater by that time in some small town and I will be the manager - this crazy old movie guy. (March 2005)
My parents said, Oh, he`s going to be a director someday. I wanted to be an actor.
I`ve come to a point where I like Pauline Kael`s reviews of Goddard more than Goddard`s films.
I don`t think Pulp Fiction is hard to watch at all.
I was kind of excited about going to jail the first time and I learnt some great dialogue.
I actually think one of my strengths is my storytelling.
It`s very important that every movie I do makes money because I want the people that had the faith in me to get their money back.
There`s only one list that`s more illustrious than the list of directors who won the Palme d`Or. It`s the list of directors who didn`t.
I`m a historian in my own mind.
I steal from every movie ever made.
Movies are my religion and God is my patron. I`m lucky enough to be in the position where I don`t make movies to pay for my pool. When I make a movie, I want it to be everything to me; like I would die for it.
On Thriller - en grym film (1974) and its influences on Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003): "And that is, of all the revenge movies I`ve ever seen, that is definitely the roughest. The roughest revenge movie ever made! There`s never been anything as tough as that movie."
On how to take the violence in Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) (re: The final duel with Lucy Liu): "It`s supposed to be kind of amusing and poetic at the same time. And also just a teeny-tiny bit solemn. When you see her head, it`s funny. And then her line, `that really was a Hattori Hanzo sword,` that`s funny. But then, the next shot is not funny, when she tips over and Meiko Kaji is singing about revenge on the soundtrack. So, it`s all together. Funny. Solemn. Beautiful. Gross. All at the same time."
I wasn`t trying to top Pulp Fiction with Jackie Brown. I wanted to go underneath it and make a more modest character study movie.
I don`t believe in putting in music as a band aid to get you over some rough parts or bad film making. If it`s there it`s got to add to it or take it to another level.
On becoming famous: "Going into a videostore and going through the videos, looking at every title they have, trying to find some old spaghetti western, that`s gone."
On media criticisms of violence in his movies: "Sure, Kill Bill`s a violent movie. But it`s a Tarantino movie. You don`t go to see Metallica and ask the fuckers to turn the music down."
On "rival" director Guy Ritchie marrying Madonna: "I guess I`ll have to marry Elvis Presley to get even."
The good ideas will survive.
(at MTV Movie Awards 1994) as he won Best Picture for _Pulp Fiction (1994)_) "Pop quiz, hotshot: you go to the awards ceremonies all year long; you keep losing to Forrest Gump (1994)! It`s really annoying the hell out of you - what do you do? You go to the MTV Awards!"
Sergio Leone was a big influence on me because of the spaghetti westerns.
I`m very happy with the way I write. I think I do it good. But I`ve never really considered myself a writer.
I don`t believe in elitism. I don`t think the audience is this dumb person lower than me. I am the audience.
I`m never going to be shy about anything, what I write about is what I know; it`s more about my version of the truth as I know it. That`s part of my talent, really - putting the way people really speak into the things I write. My only obligation is to my characters. And they came from where I have been.
I`ve always thought my soundtracks do pretty good, because they`re basically professional equivalents of a mix tape I`d make for you at home.
My mom took me to see Carnal Knowledge and The Wild Bunch and all these kind of movies when I was a kid.
A writer should have this little voice inside of you saying, Tell the truth. Reveal a few secrets here.
I always do an all-night horror marathon on Saturdays where we start at seven and go until five in the morning.
When I give props to these movies, you have to understand - it`s not like they were all good. There`s an expression: You have to drink a lot of milk before you can appreciate cream. Well, with exploitation movies, you have to drink a lot of milk-gone-bad before you can even appreciate milk! That`s what part of the love of these movies is - going through the rummage bin and finding the jewels.
Reservoir Dogs is a small film, and part of its charm was that it was a small film. I`d probably make it for $3 million now so I`d have more breathing room.
To be a novelist, all I need is a pen and a piece of paper.
I want to have the fun of doing anime and I love anime, but I can`t do storyboards because I can`t really draw and that`s what they live and die on.
I`ve always wanted to work with Warren Beatty.
When I`m writing something, I try not to get analytical about it as I`m doing it, as I`m writing it.
I have an idea for a Godzilla movie that I`ve always wanted to do. The whole idea of Godzilla`s role in Tokyo, where he`s always battling these other monsters, saving humanity time and again- wouldn`t Godzilla become God? It would be called Living Under the Rule of Godzilla. This is what society is like when a big fucking green lizard rules your world.
